


E Pluribus Unum

by Quinctia



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Complete, Crossover, Gen, Horror, Mystery, Original Game Canon, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-02-27 09:57:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2688572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinctia/pseuds/Quinctia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years after Meteor, Yuffie enlists Vincent to search for someone gone missing. Three years after the Sorceress War, Squall learns that Rinoa's done more than simply overuse her powers. How are these events connected?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Requiescat in Sanguinem I

_Note: The FF7 universe is not mine. If it were, I wouldn't need to add the disclaimer that I am writing FF7-only here, with blatant disregard to Advent Children, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and whatever upcoming “sequels” there may be, which will obviously be abbreviated EC, FC, GC, etc. :)_

  
·   
·   


**E Pluribus Unum**

**_Requiescat in Sanguinem_  
** Tempus Morieris  
Circus Vitae

**I.**

_Daylight broke over the visage of a woman standing by the sea. Long, black hair flowed freely to a point just below her waist, ending where her form-fitting corset did. Any man who saw her at a distance would have lost his breath, as she seemed the image of a fantasy pinup: lithe legs in leather pants, overlarge breasts pressed into the position of ultimate cleavage, even a materia pendant placed strategically between them…an excuse to stare?_

_At a closer look, a slightly different image would emerge. Her slimness was not due to good genes, but the presence of strong, hard muscles due to a now decades-long martial arts regimen. Among the smile and frown lines, the small battle scars on her face, she bore purple markings in a near-tribal design. Some were thick, dark, and nearly black; others were thin, spidery, and barely more lavender than her natural complexion._

_She reached a hand to her pendant. This hand was callused and battle-hardened. Cradling it in her fingers, a smile began to creep around her face. If one were to dare to creep even closer to her, as close as one might stand near a dear, old friend, or a lover, her image would mutate further._

_Her eyes, naturally a smoldering mahogany, had taken a metallic gleam of gold. They narrowed, not in the crinkle of a smile, but in a glare of determination. As her fingers clasped the materia hard, her smile transformed into a smirk. With a small nod to herself, she spun and strode confidently away from the seaside cliffs, towards the canyon before her. Walls of powdery blue stone would soon surround her, sheltering her final destination where glass stairs would carry her far beneath the Planet…to the altar of the blessed. (Or the damned.)_

_A half-sane giggle escaped from Tifa’s lips. The sound barrier was broken, and while she walked, she began to sing…_

        Sors gloriosa  
        Et generosa  
        Aeris, Aeris

        Veni, veni, veniam  
        Ne temori faciam

        Estuans interius  
        Luce incorrupti  
        Aeris, Aeris

* * *

Do it quickly, before you lose your nerve, she thought. Slowly, with a care few who knew her would recognize, she dismounted from her black chocobo. The trip from Wutai had been long and annoying. She wished, not for the first time, that her interest in chocobo breeding had been as intent as Cloud’s.

Cloud…

Yuffie winced at the thought, the memories, and concentrated instead on remaining un-nervous. Placing one foot carefully in front of the other, she plunged herself behind Lucrecia’s waterfall and into the cave beneath it.

The roar of the water she’d just passed made her entrance and first several footsteps seemingly silent. The steady sound became farther away as she progressed deeper. And the deeper she went, the more oppressive the silence seemed to become. She grimaced with every footfall, every pebble she kicked, every slight whisper of breath she heard escape her lips.

_I feel like I’m walking around a tomb._ She finally was approaching a place where the passage widened, though, and she became a bit more hopeful. Her final steps took her into a rounded cavern where, front and center, lay a coffin with a deep ebony finish.

“No duh on the tomb observation, Yuffie,” she said under her breath with a wry smile. She shook herself back into seriousness and concentration. Then, taking a deep breath, she slowly approached the coffin and examined it carefully. She smiled and nodded to herself, then reached forward and undid the clasp.

Suddenly, the lid flew up and its inhabitant popped straight up into a sitting position.  
  
·   

Yuffie screamed and jumped back, one hand covering her mouth and the other subconsciously floating to her abdomen.

“That’s your greeting?”

She moaned softly, taking a few breaths to calm down before replying. “And _that’s_ yours?”

“Those who are polite, knock. Friends call more often than once every ten years. You must then be neither.” Vincent examined her with a wary eye.

“…b-but how did you--”

“I may have been in here for the past ten years, and I may have been asleep just now, but no, I wasn’t in stasis for ten years. This time is not like before. I’m perfectly aware how long I’ve been in here.”

“I was going to ask how you knew I was in here, but that does answer other wonders.” Yuffie offered him a half-smile.

“You’ve already forgotten about my super-senses? Senility must set in early for the Wutaian. Though I wouldn’t enjoy seeing the antics of your father after ten more years of deterioration.”

“Godo’s been dead for eight years.” One of her hands flitted back to hover just over her pelvis.

“I would offer condolences, but I doubt that’s your reason for calling on me.” He rose softly until he was perched on the edge of the coffin, then dropped down to the stone floor. “I could guess, but I would rather you tell me. Why are you here?” His voice was cold, yet gentle.

She swallowed. “I’ve made a mistake.”

“I daresay we’ve all made some fairly large mistakes since…” Vincent’s words trailed off as her head began to shake softly.

“No, no, no not that kind of…” Yuffie grimaced. “Well, we’ve been separate and big-headed and egotistical, so probably, but this is personal and big and…”

Vincent found that his mouth had gone dry. “Why come to me?”  


·  

“I thought…you might understand.” A breath. “He wrote to me. And he visited me. But he always tried to stay as distant as possible…at first I thought he just needed to get his head back together. After his swim in the Lifestream and subsequent psycho time. Tore me up inside. We’d…been seeing each other secretly, since the Gold Saucer, so I didn’t have any right to stay with him in any of your eyes. So Tifa did.

“She brought him back. From both his own head and going near catatonic again in the Northern Crater. I just figured that was it. I had lost. I went home, to protect and rebuild Wutai. Godo was sick and a slave-driver. For the last two years of that bastard’s life, all I was doing was hocking materia…and…” She swallowed. “Avoiding the eyes and hands of every prick he hauled in with more than a couple gil to rub together. He wanted to marry me off, for a mere _pittance_ , when I…lo-loved…”  
   
·  


Vincent’s brow furrowed, and his eyes were clouded with bewilderment. “You mean to say that you fell in love with _Cloud_?”

“Please don’t tell me I was stupid and foolish. I was a teenager, and I was. I know I was. I don’t think I would have gone for an arranged marriage, anyway. My feelings just made it that much worse. But then my father died.” She laughed bitterly. “I thought that was the answer to all my problems. _Finally_ , I thought. I had all these ideas for rebuilding, gobs of cash saved from selling materia. The lords didn’t care.”

She saw his confused gaze. “I’ll explain. Wutai, bass-ackwards Wutai, is still under a convoluted system of noble families. I needed their support to do anything. I was the base, authority-snubbing, tomboyish dyke of a daughter of the most incompetent leader the country had ever seen. They wouldn’t depose me, honor prevented that, but they wouldn’t aid anything I tried. They were purposefully contrary. Then things changed. Everything worked out. We’ve been happy and on our way up.”

“…how, Yuffie?”

“Don’t ask.”

“I thought you--”

“It’s ugly, but it’s not what concerns me.” She waved a hand. “Right after I made the…I mean, right after things began to turn around, Cloud began to write to me. This was probably four years ago. Eventually, he took some vacations up to Wutai. We were back to being close again. Friends again. It was wonderful and such a surprise. You know, none of us really kept in contact with one another, I don’t think.”

She continued. “He always felt rogue, like he had nowhere to lay his head. No family. No hometown. I tried to convince…no, at one point near the end, I was _begging_ him to relocate to Wutai.”

“You still weren’t over him?”

“I had…a twinge or two, but I was mainly concerned for him. You see, whenever he wasn’t in Wutai, he was living in Nibelheim. Completely alone.” Yuffie lifted her eyes to meet his. “And then he disappeared.”

Vincent’s eyes widened in shock. “He’s just _gone_? He vanished?”

“Yes, he has. But…I did see him one last time. I went looking for him, two months ago. Found him the first place I looked. That damn fake, haunted village…”  
   
·  


_Her feet passed over well-worn cobblestones. She heard a melancholy tune floating through the air above her. Yuffie’s gaze fell square on the house in front of her. The replica of Tifa’s house. “I should have known,” she whispered sadly. However, she did not change her course and continued into the building and up the stairs…_

_He was at the bench of “Tifa’s” piano, slowly but steadily playing the melody to the tune written on the sheet music before him. Dressed in black leather pants and a tight, sleeveless blue top, his physique was on display. Strong arms, muscular chest; Cloud Strife still did not look a day over twenty-one._

_Her breath caught, and he chose that minute to pause his playing. Their eyes met, and he learned that he was not alone any more._

_“How long?” He left his question half-finished._

_“Not more than half a second.” Yuffie winced at the unspoken implication. (What, does he think I was stalking him? Peering in? Staring.) “You know,” she said, her voice growing a bit too-loud, “you could have just told me. Instead of this.”_

_Cloud rose. “What are you talking about?” He sounded genuinely confused._

_“The old times were a mistake. Or hormones. Being friends is too awkward. I’m okay, but don’t write. You won’t see me again.”_

_“They weren’t! Yuffie, that’s not what I…not what…”_

_“Eight months, Cloud. Without calling, writing, or visiting. Now I know I don’t have any claim to you, but you could have said good-bye.” Her face fell. “Especially when I was so…so used to having your company again. I liked having your friendship, even if I can never have…” She willed her tongue to stop moving before it went way too far in sharing her inner thoughts._

_“It’s not you,” he began._

_“I know, I know, ‘It’s not you, it’s_ me _.’ But it’s all the same in the end.”_

_He swallowed. “I’m sick.”_

_“Sick…”_

_“Do you think I live here for fun? Do you think I_ want _to be alone? I’m looking for answers here. This is the place where I stopped being normal and…became whatever Hojo made of me. I’m doing research.”_

 _“Why didn’t you ask me to help you?” Yuffie_ approached him and, exercising restraint, took his hand in hers. “I can’t stay here, but I can read. And look. And offer you a place to take your breaks.”  
   
·

_He turned away. “She won’t get out of my head. I can’t expose anyone to that.”_

_“You’re strong, and I’m sure I can tell the difference between you and Jenova--”_

_“It’s not Jenova. I think it may have something to do with that, and it’s what I started researching here…but that’s not my problem. No. I have someone breaking into my head every time I let my guard down, and it’s someone I thought was my friend. She was inside once.” Cloud’s hands curled into fists. “Now she thinks she has a right to be in there whenever she wants.”_

_“…you don’t mean…?” Yuffie gasped. “But how could she? She wasn’t ever exposed to Jenova like you were. Manipulate materia doesn’t have_ that _effect, and doesn’t last ten years, anyway.”_

_“I know. She’s seen things…looked into more than the distant past. And she’s jealous.”_

_“Jealous? But she seemed happy even after that first time we were at the Gold Saucer together. Debacle for_ us _, but she was glad I got to spend some time with you.”_

_“A little while after Meteor, when I was sitting around here trying to figure out what had been done to me…I realized she’d gotten inside somehow, was digging. I blocked her out.” Cloud looked up and into her eyes. “I decided, then, that no matter what had happened or might happen with us, I would stay away from you til I was sure she was gone. It took six years.”_

_“That’s why?”_

_He reached up and brushed a hand down the side of her face. “And then I came to make my peace with what-ifs. Say goodbye. But you were free. Alone. The way you looked at me…” His voice caught. “I couldn’t leave. I decided to take it slow, so we weren’t just using our memories. Kidding ourselves.”_

_Her voice started to tremble. “B-but then you disappeared again…”_

_“She’s back. Not full-time, thank the Planet, but I…can’t keep her out.”_

_“What does she want?” Yuffie whispered._

_“I don’t know. But from…my experiences, I know I have to keep her from getting angry. I have certain memories and areas of my consciousness blocked--for now.”_

_“You’re going to tell me to leave and not come back.”_

_His look was anguished. “I don’t want to put you in danger. Don’t you know I care for you?”_

_A strange fire began burning beneath her eyes. “No, no I don’t. You haven’t done a thing…to tell me…or show me. Not in ten years.”_

_“Do you think I haven’t wanted to? The last time…I came back to you to say goodbye. Get my last glimpse to help me fight her back out of here.” He gestured to his head. “Out of my mind, leave it for me…because I can_ have _you, in my mind.”_

_She scoffed. “Screw that, Cloud.”_

_He looked at her, wounded._

_“If there’s something you want to do or say, you’ve got about five seconds. Then I’m walking out that door and going back to Wutai.”  
_

·

_It seemed like he was there before the words had left her mouth. His hands clutched at her lower back, drawing her tight against his body. His lips began at her neck and marked a trail upward until he found her mouth and kissed her hungrily._

_Yuffie’s arms curled around his neck, and she matched his eagerness, mark-for-mark. He broke away, tongue and lips running across her collarbone as his hands slid up her form-fitting top. A moan escaped her as his fingers touched a more sensitive spot; the noise stirred him from his mad pursuit._

_“We shouldn’t.” Cloud’s breathless voice vibrated against her shoulder._

_“Maybe not.” She bit her lip. “But I don’t want to be safe. I want_ you _, if only once.” Slowly, she peeled off her shirt, then replaced his hands on her breasts. She pulled his head back down to hers and deliberately ground her hips against his. A brief pause, only to utter the words, “Don’t. Stop.”_

_It was mere moments and slow motion all at once. He laid her down on the bed even as various articles of clothing were being flung across the room. Fingers, lips, tongues explored the exposed skin of the person before them. Their cries rose to a level threatening to awaken the ghost town outside, and then he was within her, finalizing the long-delayed consummation._

_Yuffie fell to pieces beneath him; he slowed. Her eyes fluttered open with a sudden realization. She arched her back, and his world exploded._

_“You shouldn’t have…” Cloud mumbled._

_A smirk. “I told you not to stop.”_

_“I don’t know if I’ll be able to black that out. Keep it away.”_

_“Maybe I don’t want you to block out that I love you.” Silence._

_He sat up. “It’s_ dangerous _for her to know I’m in love with--”_  
   
·  


“This story, while in the range of ‘too much information,’ is nice and all, but what’s the point?”

“This isn’t me whining or anything.” Yuffie’s voice wavered. “He was gone when I woke up. All I found was this.” She thrust a bit of fabric into his hands.

Vincent arched an eyebrow at her before unfolding the white cloth. His eyes widened as he examined it. “What, was this the pillowcase?”

She closed her eyes and nodded. “It looks like it’s written in…”

“If this is why you’re here…”

“One of the reasons. Not the only.”

Vincent continued. “…I can confirm your suspicions. This was written in Cloud’s blood. I can smell it.”

She sank to the floor, shaking. “I didn’t want to be right.”

“You found this two _months_ ago? Have you gone to anyone else?”

Yuffie shook her head. “There’s no one to go--”

“We would all, I should hope,” he said, voice quivering with restrained anger, “care about _this_. Especially since it involves three of us.” He paced. “How did she get this power? What’s her motive? Do you have any idea?”

“I’d like to know. I haven’t seen her in ten years, of course. Cloud hadn’t either…except in his mind. She forced her way into his dreams, his thoughts, _raping_ his own brain!”

“It’s disgusting, Yuffie. I will never deny that. I am a bit curious, though, why you would taunt someone Cloud was so afraid of.”

“I wanted to be with him!” Her voice had risen to nearly a yell.

“Did you have to do it on a replica of her own bed? That’s _not_ the way to avoid the wrath of the psychotic!”

Her eyes widened. “I--I never even realized, Vincent. Though I don’t put any of it past her if it’d happened in a neutral place.”

“I don’t really, either. It’s just…I’m a bit concerned. If Cloud’s disappearance and…this note are her reaction to one night together…” He looked at her, and she met his gaze steadily, confirming what his suspicions and senses had told him.

She swallowed, fighting back tears.

“…how will she react, Yuffie, when she discovers that you’re carrying his child?” Vincent moved next to her, placing his good hand on her shoulder.

Drops swam in her eyes, which were fixated on the object dangling from Vincent’s claw and the words written upon it:


	2. Requiescat in Sanguinem II

**II.**

The two chief scientists of what had (ironically) been dubbed “The Jenova Project” were pacing amidst the chaos.

“Gone.” The voice was melancholy, empty. “Our labors are all for _nothing_.” The sentence ended in a near-growl.

“Red? Aren’t you more worried about the dead?” Reeve’s shock was painted on his face. “She apparently killed everyone on duty, down to the interns.”

Never was his old friend’s feline gaze more unnerving. “You know what the purpose of our research was for,” Red XIII hissed. “If they were dead, but we still had our results…”

“That was _your_ goal.” He sank down into a nearby desk chair and surveyed the lab. Filing cabinets ripped apart, the contents burned. Cabinets with every piece of glassware, down to the stirring rods, shattered. “Mine was to help everyone tainted by Shinra get themselves somewhere back near normal.” His eyes rested on the device that they’d spent the majority of their post-Sephiroth, post-Meteor lives developing. The only intact object in the building, aside from an elevator and a handful of cameras.

“Still the humanitarian. Though you’ve got a few million lives pressing down on your conscience. I’m sure I would be, too.” He crept around the holding tank, eyeing the bolts and tubes and pipes.

“I checked it already,” Reeve said, changing the subject. “It’s in perfect working order. Not a damn o-ring is out of place. Pristine like the day we built it.”

“Which is the problem.”

He was silent for a moment. “I would say it’s a problem, developing a machine that extracts Jenova cells, and coming in to work one morning to find someone has deliberately drained it.”

“But it’s whole. And it’s not like it goes in reverse.” Grimaces were even uglier than normal on an animal face.

A nervous laugh. “Apparently, it _does_. Our security cameras, which seem to have been deliberately left _alone_ , show a woman entering the building, slaughtering our colleagues and friends. She smashes everything to bits, straps herself in here, just so--” He gestured to the Collection Point, which looked like a chair with tubes radiating from it.

“Yes, the tapes also _show_ that it was Tifa Lockheart!”

“Jenova’s a shapeshifter. You know that as well as I do.”

Red XIII gave a small nod. “We also painted a huge target for whatever consciousness she has left, gathering cells here.”

“If she’s collecting every remaining bit of herself and reforming, we ought to warn someone,” he murmured. The two of them sat in silent contemplation for a few moments. Neither moved to leave.

Suddenly, a burst of static emanated from Reeve’s hip. He snatched the two-way radio from its holster and held down the comm button. “Yeah?”

It was one of the security officers posted at the entrance to their building. “ _We’ve got a couple of rather insistent visitors who claim to be friends of yours. Normally we’d let them up, but…”_

“The person who did all this looked like a friend of ours.”

“ _Precisely.”_

He exchanged a look with Red XIII before continuing. “Who is it?”

There was an extended pause before another, very familiar voice came over the channel. “ _I’m here with Yuffie. Judging by the security measures and the reactions of people around here, I suspect you’ve already had an encounter with the reason for our visit.”_

A growl. “He dropped off the face of the Planet for ten years, but he _knows_?”

Reeve’s eyes widened in realization. “You can’t possibly think--”

“He has Jenova in him!”

“Yuffie _doesn’t_.”

“Since when do they get along?” Red XIII demanded.

“They managed to put aside differences to save the Planet, if you recall,” came the soft reply.

A brief stand-off. They stood a few moments, regarding each other. Then Red XIII gave a slight nod and walked over, placing his muzzle near the radio. “Bring them up to us.”

* * *

“‘Let’s check for someone in Junon, Yuffie,’ he says. Is there something you’re hiding from me?” Yuffie asked as she was led, along with Vincent, to the elevator.

“Turks know how to find things. Information and people.” The two of them stepped inside, and he pushed the button for the laboratory.

“I would have never guessed.” She smirked.

“No, not judging by the ones you got to meet back in the day. They stopped making them like they used to.” He did not smile back, but his eyes softened a bit.

“Apparently!” she laughed, as the doors behind them slid open.

·

“I see some of us haven’t changed,” growled Red XIII. “I see you’re still making light of times of trouble.”

“It’s not my fault you’re such a sourpuss.” She made a face at him, then turned. “Long time no see, Reeve.”

He nodded in greeting.

“So how did this odd partnership form?” Vincent asked.

Reeve crossed his arms. “Could ask the same about yours.”

“She came to me yesterday with some rather awful news about some friends of ours.” His stance and expression were equally wary and stony.

“My friends from Shinra days were having problems stemming from the Mako/Jenova treatments of the past. The only research I’d ever found was a book of Professor Gast’s at Cosmo Canyon. I went back there about six years ago, found Red, and we formed a partnership.”

“In the largest building in the city? Formerly Shinra’s?”

He threw his hands up in the air. “I’m the only surviving executive of the most powerful power company in the world, how do you _think_ I’m going to make a living? Another power company. A different styled one, though. You could say they’re franchised. Barret even managed to get one built in New Corel.”

“Impressive! Especially considering what happened to the last one.” Yuffie offered a small smile.

Red XIII turned abruptly and walked into a small security station next to the elevator. “Catch up is good and all, but I’m more concerned with what you know about all this.”

Exchanging glances, the others followed his lead.

·

The four of them leaned over the surveillance monitors and were silent as the loop from 3:00-3:30 a.m. played back.

_A woman entered the lab. Slender, but strong. Her steps were quiet, light, and perfect; she nearly appeared to be floating. Her dress was dark, her hair long, and her face covered._

_Her movements were slow and deliberate. Some of her blows were physical, while others occurred seemingly with a twitch of her fingertips. Flames of pure magic, not materia. There she stood amidst the chaos of her own creation, reigning destruction in a dance with perfect choreography. The figure paused, removed a mask, and sneered at the camera._

Yuffie gasped in spite of herself, and Vincent nodded. “So it is as I thought.”

“Wait,” Reeve gasped, “you really think it is--”

He held up his hand, as the footage kept rolling.

_One thing was left pristine in the room. A piece of equipment that consisted of a chair-apparatus connected to a holding tank. Even in grayscale, the contents of the tank appeared to glow through its glass containment. Tifa’s feet seemingly slid to a position next to it. She traced her fingertips along the glass, down and around each metal support, and finally placed her whole palm on the tank._

_Like a frostbite victim trying to feel the fire, or a medium reading the portents of a crystal ball. She smiled at the camera and mouthed something._

“Rewind it.” Yuffie’s voice was barely audible.

“How far?”

“…what did she say?”

They watched again as the malicious smile formed, and the lips formed soundless syllables. “ _Hello, Yuffie.”_

She shook her head and pounded the screen with her fist. “I haven’t done anything _to_ you!”

Vincent pulled her back. “So, she seems to be draining the contents of that tank.” He turned to the others. “What’s in it?”

But Red XIII growled, “Why Yuffie?”

Reeve broke the impasse. “Nothing’s in the tank. Not any more. It used to have all the Jenova cells that we removed from people we were trying to cure. Restore to normal. It takes multiple treatments, and we didn’t want the cells free to do whatever. So we kept them.”

“So someone could waltz in and take them? How foolis--”

“It doesn’t work. in. reverse.” He glared. “Come on, you’ll see.” He pointed to the device standing in the laboratory just beyond them.

·

“First of all,” said Reeve, “the subject sits in this chair, just like so, and straps the connection straps at two points. The first goes over the neck, we pinpoint the jugular vein. You saw Tifa do this. The second goes around one of the thighs, we pinpoint the vena cava. Blood is taken from the vena cava, run through our filtering system, and then replaced in the body via the jugular vein.”

“What does that have to do with the ‘no backwards capability’ thing?” asked Yuffie.

“Well, the Jenova cells come out via the filtering process…basically, they end up falling down in the filter area, into the holding tank. Even if you could reverse the filtering system, you couldn’t get them out of the tank. You would just be taking blood from the jugular and putting it in the vena cava. And it’s all blood from the veins, so it wouldn’t do a bit of difference.”

“She only put on one strap,” said Vincent. “She didn’t reverse the filter, she just used the portion of the cycle that returned substance to her bloodstream. And she had enough power over the noncorporeal cells to call them back to her.”

Red XIII began pacing back and forth. “That’s impossible! She didn’t make a single adjustment to the system. It’s exactly how we left--”

“It’s not. At least, I certainly hope that what I’m seeing is not what the tank was like in pristine condition.”

Three very puzzled sets of eyes were now scrutinizing him.

“I do not perceive things as you all do.” No response. His voice took a turn for the sarcastic. “My Jenova ‘superpowers’ allow me to see that there is very minute etching all over that glass tank.”

A few moments of stunned silence overtook the group, in spite of all the unusual events they’d been becoming accustomed to.

“Vincent?” Yuffie’s voice wavered, breaking through. “It doesn’t say ‘Yuffie,’ does it?”

“Even I can’t see that well. I think it’s microscopic.”

Reeve was instantly on his radio. “Hey, Reg. Bring up the handheld digital scope from my truck. And the monitor, since I’ve got no working consoles up here.”

* * *

The guard most likely left in an even more disturbed state than he had been in when he arrived. Reeve had quietly instructed him to set the equipment down in the middle of the floor and then leave them in private. He began to scan the tank on his own, steadily increasing the levels of magnification.

“Red?”

“Vincent.”

“Now, I don’t need to know your project’s planned end, whether you were being philanthropic or wanting to acquire power. Let’s assume you were being philanthropic. When it results in this rather large tank full of Jenova cells, apparently sealed forever, what were you going to do with it?”

“Seal it even more impenetrably.”

“…then?” Vincent raised an eyebrow.

“Shoot it off into space,” Reeve called cheerfully from the tank.

Yuffie and Vincent shared a look of bewilderment.

“I got in contact with Cid awhile back,” he continued. “I’ve been funding some research. Though we hadn’t decided yet whether we want to shoot it so far it escapes orbit, or place it into orbit where we can go up and monitor it. Either way, the technology to get a crew into and out of orbit is in place now.” He looked up and saw their faces. “What? She came from space, I figured we should send her home at last.”

“…that’s…not it,” said Yuffie slowly. “You stopped looking at the screen. There’s words on it. I can’t make them out yet.”

He adjusted the focus. “It looks like they were etched on the inside. Reversed.” He stepped up the levels of magnification, and the letters grew larger and larger.


	3. Requiescat in Sanguinem III

III.

The messages in the glass remained a mystery. They had slowly analyzed them. The pattern kept repeating itself: four individual lines, over and over. Some letters slightly differently etched than the others. Strings of words that simply did not make sense on their own. Dusk fell and the four of them were already exhausted.

“What do you suggest we do? Give up?”

“She’s mad, Reeve. Insane. She left us _gibberish_ and thought she was being clever.” Red XIII shook his head. “This is beyond us.”

“Just because you can’t figure it out, doesn’t mean it’s gibberish!”

·   


Vincent noticed that there were only two voices arguing and eyed Yuffie carefully in his peripheral vision. Her face was pale, and she was tottering back and forth. He couldn’t tell if it was hunger or exhaustion, but he did not want to let it escalate.

·   


“You can waste all the time you want on this. I do not care. I will spend tomorrow conversing with security and the police, looking for actual leads on her whereabouts!”

“Excuse me,” said Vincent.

“What?” Red XIII half-snarled, turning to face him. “Are you going to offer your veiled opinion on this matter, when you have yet to tell us the _important_ reason you showed up on our doorstep?”

“I have no tale of my own to tell. Since you were not exactly gracious hosts, we’ve been here all day with no break for a meal. I see Yuffie over here on the brink of sleep, and I realize that we should eat and find an inn.”

Yuffie noticed that all sets of eyes were on her. “I’ve been a little under the weather lately. I think my story can wait until the morning, but…” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “I think she left a clue here. I think she left a clue with me. …I…think she wants _me_ to find her.” Her hand trembled slightly as she moved to brush a piece of hair back behind her ear.

“Come along.” Vincent reached his good hand down to her, helping her up. With a surprising amount of warmth, he guided her towards the elevator, his hand on the small of her back. He turned back for a moment. “Gentlemen. We will discuss plans in the morning. What to do next, because I don’t think we should all sit here alone playing codebreakers. If nothing else, because we’ve a shortlist of the next people she’s likely to visit in the night.”

* * *

Yuffie looked tiny on the opposite end of the booth. She had her arms wrapped around herself defensively. “I’ll just have whatever your soup of the day is, thanks.”

“You’ve not eaten all day.”

She shrugged.

“Chicken salad sandwich,” added Vincent as he handed the small menus back to the waitress.

“I didn’t know you ate.”

“It’s for you.”

She grabbed her water glass, but, instead of taking a sip, she moved her hand, swirling the ice cubes. “I’m not that hungry.”

“You are not like me. You need food, especially…with your stress levels up so high.”

Lifting her eyes from the ice water, she studied his face intently. “…is… _that_ …why you’re being so nice to me?”

“Of course, Yuffie. It’s not because I could identify with a psychotic person wanting to harm both me and a person I cared deeply for…simply because I wanted to be with her. That couldn‘t be it.”

Her brow furrowed. “But…in your case, they were already together before…”

“I think you’ll see, in Tifa’s mind at least, she saw things a little bit differently.”

The waitress arrived, setting their food in front of them, and laying the check down on the table. Vincent pushed his plate until it sat in front of her.

A quiet understanding between them, Yuffie grabbed a sandwich half and took a cautious bite.

* * *

_They slowly walked back to Ghost Square. Not a word had passed between them after they’d seen…_ Just who the hell do they think they are? _She’d said it earlier, and she would be saying it to her dying day. Fuck the Shinra. Everyone was tied to them._

_“Even us,” she said softly._

_“Huhn?” Cloud’s response was less than eloquent. Quite fitting, given the night’s events._

_“We hate the Shinra, avoid them at all costs, and spend time trackin’_ their _damn mistake…and our lives are still all messed up because of them! We trusted Cait…maybe it was a mistake…it was a_ cat _, gawd…but he ended up being Shinra.” Yuffie paused before the stairs in the lobby. “My fath--Godo told me that I couldn’t trust anyone on the outside. That nobody was what they seemed. Everyone was fake. I just said the last part of my thought. Everyone’s fake…even us.”_

_“We’re not fake! We’re going to find Sephiroth.”_

_“Why, Cloud? I know it’s not just revenge. I know what revenge looks like, acts like, and you’re nothing like it.”_

_“I have to. Or I won’t make it.” He started to go up the steps._

_“Are you lyin' to all of us? Faking with all of us?” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I know I hurt you all with my materia scheme in Wutai. I said I was sorry! Why did you have to do this to me?”_

_He turned back. “I didn’t do anything…”_

_“Let’s ignore everyone and everyday. Talk about tonight. I can’t believe you acted the way you did…messin’ up that play…bein’ such a jerk in the gondola. Why did you even go with me if you hated me like that? And why did you let me think…if…” She closed her eyes. “Nevermind. Just get away from me.”_

_“Let you think what?”_

_“Stop actin’ like you had no idea what you were doing. Protectin’ me when we were fighting. Helpin’ me with my seasickness. Rescuin’ me from that pervert up on Da Chao.” She bit her lip. “Why did you have to be so nice? Why couldn’t you have just asked me to stop when I was tryin’ to be nice back tonight?”_

_A strange light flickered across his face, and he glanced around himself nervously. “It’s complicated,” Cloud whispered. “_ I’m _complicated. Sometimes I’m not even me. Barret’s crazy and obsessive, Cid’s old and bitter, Vincent’s a freakshow, Red XIII is too quiet, Aeris is some lost race and also constantly finding trouble, and Tifa…”_

_“I get it. You an’ her.” A sniffle._

_“No.” His eyes bored into hers with an intense emotion behind them--was it_ fear _? “She changed. She doesn’t even know it yet.”_

_Yuffie grabbed his hand. “Then why--”_

_“It’s not safe, and I’m not ready. It’s too hard. I like you too much to…more than just ‘nice’ would hurt you. I wanted you to leave me alone and be safe. I do like you, so much that I’m telling you nice.”_

_She nodded. “I just…”_

_“What?”_

_“My first kiss, and you didn’t even kiss me back.”_

_He fully turned back towards her and touched her face. “Do-over for both of us.” And he brought his lips down to hers._

_Then they broke apart._

_“We’ll have to tell the others what we saw..and heard…in the morning. Barret won’t be happy.” A pause. “Goodnight.”_

_“Sweet dreams,” she whispered back to him as he climbed the stairs. As he made his way down the hall and into his room, she got a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like she wasn’t alone. She turned behind her, to where the other end of the inn’s hallway formed a balcony in front of the stairs…and met a pair of smoldering burgundy eyes._

·   


She screamed and bolted upright, panting in her terror. “Even then?!” A moan. “No, no, no…” Was the dream memory or message or symbolism? And paired with the clear recollection of her post-date gushing to Tifa in their shared room at Ghost Square… Yuffie’s stomach was turning in time to pace her tormented mind.

Vincent had turned to watch her with concern at first scream and became quite worried when he watched her stumble towards the bathroom.

On her knees in front of the toilet, she gagged and dry-heaved, but nothing would come out. The churning slowly passed, and she sank back, sitting on her feet with her head in her hands.

“I would have woken you earlier, had I known this would be your wake-up call.” Vincent stood in the doorway.

“Why?” She didn’t move a muscle.

“Reeve got a call…a little after daybreak.” He swallowed.

Hollow fear began to build within her. It took a lot to unnerve Vincent.

“Barret said there was…an accident in Corel.”

“An accident that was probably something you-know-who did on purpose?”

“Quite likely, don’t you think?” he asked.

“I don’t know what to think any more. I don’t know what she wants with us…or if she’s just trying to get to me.”

“No one knows except for her.” He reached down and helped guide her back to her feet. “Now I told Reeve that we would meet them at the dock as soon as you were rested and ready to go--”

“I can’t eat now, and I’m done with sleeping for quite some time.”

He patted her on the shoulder. “Then, as soon as you are ready, Yuffie, we are flying to Corel. I think we should prepare for the worst.”

* * *

They touched down in the dust bowl. The four figures exiting the Gelnika were obscured by the sand swirling around them. They were silent and had been silent on the trip, for the most part.

When Vincent had inquired of the details of Barret’s early morning call, Reeve could only manage to answer: “He sounded like he was about to go crazy. Not…not Barret crazy. Not angry. About to snap completely and jump of a cliff crazy, with his last words making less sense than Cloud’s mako-induced haze.”

Red XIII cocked his head. “Shouldn’t we talk to Cloud about this? Tifa being a childhood friend and all? Plus, I’d imagine he’d be Barret’s first choice for back-up.”

Yuffie had just curled up into a ball where she sat, willing her new waves of nausea to go away. There was no time to explain her problems; not when she had the gut feeling that the new development could very well be much, much worse.

Vincent had just set his mouth. “We better be contacting everyone we can, after we find out the details of what happened here.”

·   


As they approached the outskirts of the town, they were met by a familiar, yet unexpected face. Olive complexion, clean-shaven head, any trace of emotion obscured by dark sunglasses.

“Fancy meeting you here, Rude.”

He remained expressionless. “We all had to get work somewhere, Reeve. I pulled the unlucky card of being head of security at the energy tower here.” Reading Yuffie and Vincent’s expressions, he added a bit more information. “All energy towers using Reeve’s technology are, as far as I know, either thermal, solar, or hydroelectric. Ours receives thermal from mako as well as solar, given the amount of sun we get in this neck of the woods.”

“I assumed it had to be along those lines, given Barret allowing its erection.” Vincent scrutinized his surroundings. “It’s abnormally quiet around here.”

“I don’t blame them for hiding. I would, in their position. I’ve met you here on purpose--for many reasons, your meeting is to take place in the tower.”

·   


New Corel was like a ghost town possessed. The streets were empty; seemingly, the buildings were, too. Yet beneath the solid, silent exteriors, Yuffie could sense activity. Those hiding inside, fearing for their lives, were also angry beyond belief. Trust had been breached. The unthinkable had happened once again.

Someone needed to pay.

She’d taken to the habit of walking quite near to Vincent. The vibes the place was sending off were so disturbing that she found herself clutching his arm to help her continue walking. As her hands came to rest at his elbow, she caught a knowing, cynical look shot from Red XIII to Reeve. She shuddered at the implication of her sudden closeness to their most mysterious comrade. _At least the truth will surprise them_ more _,_ she thought to herself.

It was a relief to arrive at the power plant, where a slight buzz of activity was allowed. Still, they felt the glares of distrust from the few people milling about.

“He’s just inside,” Rude assured them, as he led them into the building. They walked down the main passage, through a doorway, and turned into a narrow corridor. The door at the end was their final destination, and they filed through it, one-by-one.

Yuffie’s heart lurched forward. Even though she and Barret had never really gotten to the point of “friends,” she knew the man in front of her was the perfect image of misery. She knew because she’d learned misery well.

“Mr. Wallace?” Rude was…the opposite of his nickname, the epitome of businesslike politeness.

His intense eyes looked up through hollows. “I think ya can just use Barret at this point. I won’ be boss for much longer, and ain’t no way in hell, I will be mayor. I be lucky if they don’t lynch me for this shit.”

“Barret.” Reeve stepped forward. “I’m still not sure what’s happened, aside from the fact that it took place _here_. You’re not the only one having troubles, though. That’s why I’m not the only one who came.”

It was at that point that he truly noticed the members of the group that had filed through his office door. He sprang to his feet. Joyful surprise softened his face for a moment. “Red! Yuffie! _Vincent!_ Why, kitty-thief-coldman!” He laughed to himself.

Yuffie was astounded as she was enveloped by a sudden embrace, followed by a mane-ruffle for Red XIII and a hearty handshake for Vincent.

“Y’all came for _me_?”

“We all would have come for anything, had you just asked,” Vincent said. “However, we came on our own volition, because we knew chances were high that your problems were…” His voice trailed off.

“Horrible.” Yuffie broke in. “You’re not alone in this. We need to know your story. Then we can compare it with ours and…help or solve the problem.”

“Good! If there’s somethin’ terrible going ‘round, we can fight it.” Barret gave his gun-arm a loving stroke. “And if y’all already know, then maybe we can set some bad stories fuckin’ straight.” He eyed Rude suspiciously.

They could see repressed anger behind his façade, as he protested. “I am only reporting what someone who saw _her_ said! Before he…because she…” He shook his head. “I know there was no love lost between you and Reno, but he said what he said because he wanted vindication! Not because he wanted to hurt--”

“Why don’t we hear the whole story, see what we can add with ours. Perhaps you are closer to the same page than you think,” Reeve suggested, as he nodded over to Barret.

·   


“I’m gonna start at the beginning, so Yuffie and Vince here’ll understand. Ever since I got back to Corel, I’ve been mad about improvin’ the place. It was my fault that Shinra ruined everything…more my fault for leavin’ them to be nothin’ more than a way station to the damn Gold Saucer! But the Shinra ‘zecutives were right about one thing: minin’ coal was dirty and dangerous. And the people here still wanted power. And work…work that wasn’t so hard as coal.

“Five years past Meteor, and we’re all stuck in the same damn shit as before. No matter how much materia I sell, how many gil pieces I invest in the town…everyone still hates me. ‘Cuz they can never go back to coal now and be happy. But it’s a secret hate.” He laughed, bitterly. “Nobody in Corel would go around bad-mouthin’ no guy who pays for the school, the roads, makes up bullshit jobs so we’re not all dependin’ on the Saucer tram. They despise me anyways, jus’ think I don‘t realize.

“I ran for mayor. It was stupid, but they was even stupider, ‘cuz they elected me. So I decide to see if…maybe…somebody since Shinra has found a way to make power that’s not Mako or coal. And Reeve here had. Now, I had trouble trustin’ him at first…” He shook a finger in Reeve’s direction. “…part of me thought to myself, once a Shinra, always a Shinra. But he done me good. With his comp’ny’s money plus Corel’s money a.k.a. _my_ money, we built this tower. No problems. Good jobs, good power.

“It was a rebirth. We called the town ‘New Corel,’ after. For five years, we been happy. They stopped hatin’. I would go into the mayor’s office from 9 a.m. to noon, and then work here 1 p.m. to 8. Marlene had friends at school and was our secretary in the afternoons. I even got over my Shinra hate and hired these Turk goons. Three of ‘em, in charge of security. Could have one here ‘round the clock, if I needed ‘em.”

Barret sat down, then, his face contorted in pain. “We was happy. All of us, even if the work was hard sometimes. It was better than coal. Or an ass-beating…” His voice died, and he shook his head, overcome.

Rude broke in. “There was a breach in our security. Not that our security was ever _exceptionally_ tight. Our biggest fears out here were pranks and vandalism. Not everyone around was as happy with the new power supply as the majority were. We generally only kept two personnel on duty in the middle of the night. No one would visit, and one person was usually sufficient. Especially considering one person was always, always a _Turk_. Who wants to harass the night shift, especially when they make sure your house stays nice and cool in this heat? Last night, one of our regular guards was ill.” A pause. “So Elena joined Reno on duty.”

“You essentially had more security than normal,” Vincent stated with surety.

A nod. “Elena was working a double shift, on top of it, so around 10 o’clock, she was getting pretty hungry. She called Marlene to ask her a favor--to bring her up some dinner. That’s the last thing we know for sure.”

Yuffie’s mouth went dry at the sound of the name she’d last associated with a four year old child.

“Marlene had left around the time Barret went to sleep, so he didn’t miss her when she didn’t return immediately. No one heard the screaming until 2 a.m.” Rude swallowed. “The nearest neighbor to the plant called Barret, who called me. The two of us prepared for the worst, and still didn’t comprehend what…what we found inside.”

“Is she…I mean, if there was screaming, she couldn’t be…” Yuffie’s voice broke through the silence, stuttering the thoughts the rest of them had swirling in their heads.

“She was the only one alive. Every worker on duty…Reno…‘Lane…” He shook his head. “Everyone dead, but she’s all right. If you can call being tied up and forced to watch the murders of two people all right. She’s in her home, with a nurse, under sedation.”

She looked at him knowingly, watching the nervous fidgeting, the tics, as he kept trying fruitlessly to hold back any clues to his emotions. “I can’t imagine…”

“I _can_.” Rude’s voice cracked. “She fucking bled them dry. What she did to the workers was horrible, I won’t deny that… But what she did to the last--the _best_ was brutal. And no one has any damn clue for a motive!”

“I been tellin’ you, a dyin’ man don’t have to see straight! How do we know it was _Tifa_? How can we even be thinkin’ it’s her?” From the look on Barret’s face, it was obvious that this was already a major point of contention.

“Did Reno identify her by name?” Vincent asked quietly, eyes on Rude.

“He said she didn’t look the same, but yeah. His dying breath…you think he’d waste it on something petty and old as a grudge against AVALANCHE?”

“My condolences. It’s always hard to deal with a comrade going down.”

He was quiet for a moment, then reached up to adjust his sunglasses. “That’s not the worst of it, actually.”

“It’s _not_?” Red XIII looked up. “Has she accessed mako from the thermal devices? Done something else suspicious?”

“It’s easier to show you,” Rude replied.

* * *

They passed cleaning crews on their way to the heart of the plant, which seemed to be shut down for the time-being. Rude paused outside the doors to the main security room. “We collected evidence, photos, and are finished with every other area of the building. Here, things are…untouched, because she was cruel and deliberate. And we believed that with Reeve’s assistance, we could decipher… _something…_ ” He waited a moment to recompose himself. “I have seen many terrible things. This room is among them. I understand if not all of you follow me. I wish none of you had to.”

Yuffie bristled slightly at the concerned looks shot in her direction. Just because every new piece of this puzzle freaked her out more didn’t mean she couldn’t handle receiving more to help solve it! “Tifa seems to have become terrible. If we don’t look at what she’s done, we won’t know how to keep her from doing more.”

There was a collective setting of jaws as they entered the crime scene. Two chalk outlines were all that remained of two people who weren’t necessarily friends, but not _quite_ enemies. Splashes of a dark red-brown color covered the already dark walls. The splashes didn’t make sense, though, relative to the bodies.

“This isn’t just terrible,” said Red XIII. “There is something weird about how she left the room. It’s _off_.”

“I can tell you all, from way too much experience in destroying people, that these patterns of blood were not caused by its exit directly from the body.” Vincent grimaced. “She placed it where it is, most likely with purpose.”

“Purpose? But we can’t see the damn shit!” Barret squinted at one pattern that took up most of a wall. “Wait…I can make out a letter or two…L…U…S.”

Reeve snapped his fingers. “I have an idea! Let me grab the bag I brought from the Gel.”

They huddled together as he left for the office, seeking quiet solace in each other’s company until he returned. With a couple spray bottles and a digital camera.

“I told you, we’re not cleaning it yet…and we’ve taken plenty of damn pictures, okay?” Rude’s voice took on an edge of desperate anger.

“You all called me because I have some science knowledge, and you trust me. Keep on trusting. The camera is to take pictures of what happens _after_ I use the bottle, because the effect isn’t permanent.”

Rude’s face remained set and skeptical, while Red XIII appeared to have suddenly realized what his lab partner had in mind.

He rolled his eyes and stepped up to the patch of blood that Barret had been staring at. “Watch.” He worked quickly, pumping the trigger on the bottle, lightly covering the surface.

Suddenly, they all could see the letters L and U (as well as others), glowing with a bright blue-green.

“Wait, Mako sticks to blood?” Barret looked as bewildered as most of them felt.

Reeve smiled. “This is luminol. It’s a substance that _glows_ when it reacts with other substances. One of them is in blood. Even if this room had been cleaned completely, we could have used this to see where the blood  was.”

“I’m glad this wasn’t well known when I was a Turk,” said Vincent. “Though, at least, I may have been spending too much time in prison to fiddle with the project in Nibelheim, then.”

“There’s downsides. It will destroy a good amount of the blood sample. Also, it doesn’t last forever. So let’s hurry. Coat _everything_ , take pictures. We’ve got a few hours of luminescence at this strength, but if it’s anything like what she left on our tank…we’ll need time.” He handed off bottles to Rude and Vincent, standing back with the camera to take a shot of the wall he’d covered.

“What she left…” Barret’s voice trailed off, and he looked at Yuffie. “Whoever did this’s been somewhere else?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Stole all the Jenova cells that Reeve and Red had extracted from people Shinra’d messed with.” She took a deep breath. _Better now than never_. “And she abducted Cloud, or mind-controlled him, whatever, in the middle of the night. He hasn’t been seen since.”

Everyone except Rude and Vincent paused in surprise.

“Cloud?” asked Red XIII. “How do you know this?”

“Because…because I was _with_ him at the beginning of that night.” Her eyes blazed fiercely. “She left me a message as well. We’ll have to sit down, put ‘em together, and decipher them, because it’s beginning to look like she’s either batshit insane or an expert in code. Both?” She nodded at the words now enveloping them.


	4. Requiescat in Sanguinem IV

IV.

Yuffie lay down in her borrowed bed, pulling the patchwork quilt around her. She passed her fingertips over the various pieces of fabric, fitting into one another like pieces of a puzzle. She wondered if the things that Tifa left in her wake could ever fit together like this, like the gift Elmyra had given to Marlene.

She snuggled into the fluffy down mattress. _I’m supposed to be resting, but I just feel useless._ She’d emptied her stomach contents as soon as she’d left the tower, and Vincent had insisted she be given a place to lay down while they started to work on Tifa’s messages.

Her hand came to a rest on her abdomen. _…sometimes I wonder if I’ve lost it. Or is this just what it’s like, to have Jenova cells inside? Is there a barrier? Am I just one of them now?_

_Should I just be waiting for my time to go crazy?_

Sleep was just as much a stranger to her this evening as it had been for the past two months. Laying her head back on the pillow, Yuffie fought her deepest worries and listened to the voices that rose through the not-thick house walls.

* * *

They’d stared at the walls of the security room until the luminol went dim. Every wall was the same. It wasn’t enough to create one huge, bloody message; it had to be repeated so there was no way it could be missed.

Barret had gone to spend the night at Marlene’s bedside; she’d been transferred to the local clinic. He’d given the rest of them the use of his house to rest and regroup. They’d sat down to a meal of bland take-out, and Vincent had convinced Yuffie to get some rest.

Rude sauntered over to the kitchen table that was to be their brainstorming area. He slid his long legs above and onto one of the two thick benches that was on either side. As he did so, he methodically set a bottle of vodka and four shot glasses onto the bare wood surface in front of him.

“I doubt I’ll be drinking,” said Red XIII.

A shrug. “I’ll save it in case I want to switch to something harder.” A bitter tone had entered his voice, and he began to pour himself a shot. “Anyone else?”

Two nods.

Vincent seemed to take his for nostalgia’s sake more than effect, and Reeve could barely tolerate his. Rude immediately was downing a second after the last drop of his first hit his tongue.

He set the glass down, his brow furrowing. He’d removed his sunglasses. “I never drank at times like these. That was a Reno thing. I needed to do a Reno thing tonight…maybe it’ll help me see what happened to him.”

Reeve placed printouts of the security room on the table, then added to it images of the Junon holding tank etching. “Here are the notes we took on the letters. We noticed a continuous repeating pattern. Four lines repeated. Three of them contained sentences, and the fourth contains a word or words that we don’t know.” He placed one blown up image on top of all of them. “Here is the repeating pattern in the second type of etched letters. While you were all asleep last night, I was getting a computer to do some of our work for us. It’s why I was awake to take Barret’s call.”

“What are the sentences?” asked Rude.

“I am alive here, let me out. She says she’s coming. There is more than one.”

“Who’s alive? Where is here? Who’s coming? More than one of what?”

“I don’t know,” said Reeve, “ and I think I need another shot.”

“What’s the repeating pattern within the odd letters? Can you write it down so I may look at it?” Red XIII’s tail twitched behind him, leaving patterns of alternating glow and shadow upon the wall.

Rude looked at the blown up image. “O…I…T…A… I…T…E… H…E…N…R… M…T…N…R…R… N…C…H…E…R,” he recited as he wrote down the letters.

“So they’re not in any sort of word order, correct?”

“Nope.”

“And it’s not every instance of a particular letter? Every ‘E’ is not etched in the secondary way?”

“From this picture, it appears random,” said Rude.

Reeve recapped the liquor bottle. “He’s right. There’s not an obvious message that pops up. That pattern repeats, within a pattern of the four lines that repeats…so those letters could very well be part of another message.”

“Is it really code?”

“Code or an anagram,” said Vincent.

“I’m better with anagrams,” Red XIII said. “Pass the paper.”

Reeve scrutinized the image again. “I tried to use the computer to crack the code. Unless it’s a code of words in the _Cetra_ language or some other unknown tongue, it’s not a code.”

Rude grabbed another sheet and began to tear it into squares.

Vincent arched his eyebrow.

“I work better with my hands. I’d have asked if there were a word board game around, but then I remembered. We’re in Barret’s house.” He chuckled. “He’s got a world of spirit, but I know from some of his memos that language is not his strong suit.” He placed twenty-one squares in front of him and copied down the letters.

“I doubt all those letters go to one word,” said Reeve.

“Do you think it’s a sentence?” Rude asked, randomly shuffling the papers about, hoping that inspiration would strike.

“If the other lines in the glass were sentences…” Red XIII’s voice trailed off, his head cocked to the side as he stared at his sheet.

“One line was gibberish as far as we can tell. Also, she’s insane.” Vincent leaned back, skeptical. “What if it’s just ‘so sorry, my Jenova now?’ or something equally silly and petulant?”

“Can’t be. There’s no ‘S’ or ‘J,’” Reeve replied, with a grin.

Rude began to pull pieces aside.

“Do you actually have something?” Vincent asked.

“I just decided to pull out simple words I saw. Here’s ‘in,’ and…” He moved some more papers around. “There’s ‘the.’”

“Pull out ‘a’ while you’re at it, then. Wait! ‘At!’”

“At least ‘in’ and ‘the’ could be part of a phrase on their own,” Rude retorted.

Reeve set his glass down firmly, third shot down. “For shits and giggles, let’s see what letters you’ve got left.”

·   


Moving “in” and “the” to the side, Rude moved his hand, gesturing to the remainder:

  
**  
**

O A R T E R M T N R I N C H E R

****  


·

“Can I pull out a word, can I?” Reeve seemed to be getting closer to the edge of intoxication.

“If it’s stupid, put it right back,” advised Vincent.

Reeve pulled up pieces of paper. “Ta-da!” _Crater_.

“How on the Planet does the word ‘crater’ help us? The one crater we know collapsed.” He shook his head. “Pass the alcohol before I slap you.”

Rude cocked his head to the side, glancing at the letters left.

**  
**

O M T N R I N H E R

·   


A shuffle. Nothing. Another.

“Give it up,” said Vincent. “At least put Reeve’s silliness back.”

  ·

**  
**

N R H O T M I E R N

·   


“Wait. I see ‘north,’” Rude said.

“Is there an -ern?” Reeve smiled.

“Holy shit.” He pulled the letters out. “Look.”

**  
**

IN THE NORTHERN CRATER

“That leaves ‘i’ and ‘m’…‘I’m in the Northern Crater’… Or is she?” Vincent consumed another drink of the vodka. “What if it’s a trap?”

“If she wanted to kill Barret or me, she probably could have done it while we slept last night.”

“She certainly could have found me in Junon,” Red XIII added. “Reeve?”

He nodded in response. “Seeing what happened here, and at the lab, I know she could have gotten to any of us if she chose. We don’t need specifics, I suppose, since she’s not here to ask, but how was Yuffie sure Tifa did something to Cloud?”

“He’d pretty much stated that he was in fear of Tifa as soon as she found him. He’d isolated himself because of it. So when she awoke next to _this_ instead of the man who’d been there the night before…” Vincent pulled out the bloody pillowcase. “She made an assumption. She came to me to prove it right. I can assure you that _someone_ took Cloud’s blood to write this message. And in light of all these things, I only have one idea.”

“Ideas are good,” said Reeve.

A cynical smile. “This one isn’t particularly nice. Tifa deliberately left Yuffie alone, despite having the perfect opportunity to harm someone she deems a ‘bitch,’ at the least. She didn’t go after either of you in Junon, but she went after your machine. The brutal deaths in the power plant…the only link is Jenova.”

“What about the messages?” asked Red XIII. “Those don’t mention Jenova at all.”

“She wants to draw us out, to her? The crater could be a trap. But, if Cloud is still alive, it would probably be the only opportunity to save him. Cloud lost a lot because of the experiments done to him. I don’t think he’s had the opportunities that you’ve all had since Meteor.” Vincent stood up. “Yuffie will go wherever she thinks she will find him, and I will toss my hand in, too. We have to find Cloud…whether it’s to save him, or avenge him.”

Reeve stood up, smoothing back his dark hair. “Cloud’s sacrifice for us all was up there with Aeris’, even though he still walked beside us, in the end. I'm with you.”

“As am I,” Red XIII nodded. “I am certain that Barret will be with us, as well. It looks like this will be the most unlikely reunion.”

As the three former members of AVALANCHE moved to leave the table, Rude spoke up from the bench. “Wait.” He looked up. “I know I don’t have enhanced abilities, and I’m not all that smart. I’m sure from your viewpoints, I’m just someone who lost a lot of fights to you. Yet, I can’t rest if I can’t solve what happened to Reno and Elena. If this is a trap, I want to be beside you when you walk into that net.”

“Bring scissors!” Reeve smiled.

* * *

The next morning, six gathered around Barret’s kitchen, instead of four. Reeve immediately began to speak. “I made a phone call before I went to sleep last night. Good and bad news.”

“Bad news,” said Yuffie. “I don’t want to wait for the punchline from hell.”

“Tifa has apparently already paid Cid a visit. She left her mark on Rocket Town. Only on the shuttle.” He nodded to Vincent. “You may have been on to something last night. Cid doesn’t think there’s anyone who’d been exposed to Jenova in Rocket Town.”

“What did the shuttle say? ‘For a good time, call Tifa in the Northern Crater’? ‘Cloud plus Tifa equals Smiley-Face’? ‘Ring around the rosey, die you motherfuckers’?” The words fell out of Yuffie before she could even stop them. She wrapped her arms around herself.

“Wecos.”

“ _Huh_?”

Reeve shrugged. “Cid spelled it out for me. W-E-C-O-S. He has no idea what it is, either. He was hoping we would. It happened about two weeks ago, and he’d just assumed it was vandalism. Except for one thing; the message was  burned into the side of the shuttle. They’ve refinished and repainted it already, so there’s no point in looking at it.”

Barret shook his head. “So y’all sure that this is _Tifa_?”

“Cloud was convinced that she was very, very dangerous,” Yuffie said. “Decide what you want, but I believed him. Especially after…” Her words trailed off, and she shook her head.

“Cid wants us to pick him up before we head off. So I suppose this is last call. Are we ready?” Reeve looked around at his companions.

“Fuckton of ammo for the gun-arm!” Barret gave his trademark pat.

Yuffie smiled, in spite of herself. “I have a case of materia that I acquired lawfully, all for your enjoyment.”

“Is it all right that I left the positronic animals at home?” Reeve grinned.

“Perhaps,” said Vincent, “if we go in a strong, but cautious team…we may save more than one friend today. We knew Tifa, and the Tifa we knew was not a monster, was not Jenova.”

“Save Cloud, then try to save Tifa?” Red XIII nodded. “That should be the plan.”

“She may have turned, like Sephiroth, but there was a point where Sephiroth could have been saved, had he any friends.”

“Let’s go, then,” said Rude. “For friendship.”

“And hope,” replied Vincent.

As the group filed out the door, Yuffie paused.

·   


_“I know why I’m fighting,” Cloud said. “I’m fighting to save the Planet, and that’s that. But besides that, there’s something personal, too…”_

_Yuffie bit her lip, listening to his speech._ But…all I have is Wutai…and nothing I do is going to help them. It’d probably be _better_ off destroyed.

_“A very personal memory that I have. What about you all?” He paused. And met her eyes._

_She smiled to herself. So he hadn’t forgotten?_

_“I want all of you to find that something within yourselves. If you don’t find it, then that’s okay, too. You can’t fight without a reason, right? So, I won’t hold it against you if you don’t come back.”_

_The airship traveled very quickly, dropping off the crew and members of AVALANCHE. Yuffie wasn’t sure why she faked her landing in Wutai, staying on that hateful ship as it made its way across the Planet. She felt the Airship come to a stop, hovering near the outskirts of Midgar. The motion sickness passed with the motion._

_She realized it, though, as she made her way back to the bridge._ Cloud’s still here. And he’s all alone. _However, as she neared the door, she saw someone else walk through it. Someone with long, dark hair. Puzzled, she continued on._

_Cloud saw her through the clear panels of the door. He glanced at Tifa, then back at Yuffie. He shook his head, subtly._

That ass! _Hot tears sprang to her eyes, as she heard the muffles of their conversation._

_“What are you going to do, Tifa?”_

_“Did you forget? I’m… all alone. I don’t have anywhere to go.”_

This isn’t happening. Gawd, I am such a moron! _Yuffie ran down to the meeting room and huddled herself in the corner, as the tears continued to flow._ He liked you. He even met with you a few times. But Tifa knew him first, and she was the one who saved him.

It’s not fair! I’m just as alone as she is, I have every right to fight for…

_Everyone was stunned the next morning, when she “came back.” She’d never left in the first place. Her home was in shambles, and her own “friends” didn’t know she was coming back to join them when they were in trouble. Then, Cloud…_

_She shook her head. It didn’t matter. She didn’t have to get anything back, to fight for love._

·   


Yuffie nodded to herself, as she prepared to walk out to the Gelnika. _For friendship, hope, and love._

_And this time I’m not going to leave the Crater empty handed because of you, you conniving bitch._


	5. Requiescat in Sanguinem V

V.

The bathroom in the Gelnika was tiny and utilitarian. Yuffie washed her face with the cold water from the sink. Cursing motion sickness. Cursing morning sickness. Her reflection showed a version of herself that she did not know: sunken eyes, face taut, thin and pinched; she looked like the victim of a vampire. Taking a deep breath, she tied her hair back with a red headband. She was in horrible need of a haircut; her trademark pixie had taken on a shaggy mind of its own.

She was met by Vincent as soon as she walked out of the door. “We’re almost there.”

“I’m ready.” She nodded. “Anything worth having is worth fighting for.”

He didn’t respond immediately; his eyes seemed to be searching for something in the distance. “I know you’re capable.”

“Thank ya much.” She rolled her eyes and moved to walk away, but he grabbed her by the arm.

“Don’t take this as an insult. I want you to stay as far away as possible.”

“Why?” She yanked herself away, furious. “Just because--”

“Because I got entangled with someone Jenova ensnared, once. If a form of Jenova arrives, fight. If Cloud needs it, help. I won’t let anyone be destroyed like I was, though. If she gets to you, it’ll only be through me. You don’t deserve that.”

“Vincent.” A tear slipped from her eye. “I understand. But you need to understand, too. You’re not the only one who’s lost something important. Not the only one that wonders, ‘Am I even real anymore?’” She paused. “This should have been impossible.” She placed her hand over her abdomen.

“All the more reason to keep her away at all costs.”

A shudder passed through the body of the craft, as it made its landing descent. They’d arrived.

* * *

The Northern Crater’s face had changed, but its soul hadn’t. A fine mist of mako energy permeated the air, like a green veil. The winds that passed along the outside ridge were frigid.

“So, what? Are we all gonna go down then?” Cid asked, lighting a cigarette.

“Reno and Elena couldn’t take her, apparently.” Rude swallowed. “Why would we risk _not_ going full force?”

Meanwhile, Vincent and Red XIII had walked a short distance away from the group, eyeing the crater for clues to Tifa’s whereabouts.

“No…” Vincent paused, peering down into the crater. About two hundred feet down, he could see a large, flat platform area formed from an outcropping of rock. Upon it, he saw a figure, and what appeared to be a large crystal of solid mako. He motioned to Red XIII, and then he pointed down. “Confirm this.”

His good eye searched the area, his feline ears twitched forward, and he gave the air a sniff. “There’s someone down there. The smell of Jenova is strong, but beyond that, I cannot say. Given the amount of people Hojo gave Jenova injections to in the first place, and how many survived the Reunion… It would almost have to be Tifa. Reno and Elena are dead, add in our treatments, and you and Cloud just may be the only individuals with Jenova cells anymore.” Red XIII grimaced. “And Tifa, after the lab incident.”

“Over here.” The request was quiet, as Vincent motioned to the others. “We’re going to keep it down, and try for an element of surprise.” He pointed to the west. “I see a decent path that way. I think Reeve, Barret, and Cid should take it.” A nod to the east. “Another way down over there that is a bit harder and more direct. The four of us will take it. We’re a little more agile, and hopefully will be as quiet as you are.”

“We’ll need a signal,” Rude said. “We can’t have one team going in without knowing if the other is prepared.”

“I’ll wave my tail in the air twice,” said Red XIII, “that should be bright enough to notice. Barret can fire one shot in response, and we’ll approach that platform.”

The group split and began their advance. Even though years had passed, and the crater had collapsed, they all found that their path felt natural. When Sephiroth had been defeated, they had secured the fate of returning to that spot for the third time.

The final time.

* * *

From his vantage beneath a large boulder, Vincent could just spy the other group reach their destination point. He looked back at his concealed companions, nodding at Red XIII. “It’s time.”

With cat-like grace, he leapt just beyond Vincent, lifting his tail into the field of visibility for the other team.

Suddenly, they heard a voice calling out to them. “Can we end this charade?” A cold laugh. “I watched you all, with my eyes and my mind’s eye. Friends, let’s hold a council like human beings.”

The sound was Tifa, yet not. The warm, sweet, naïve tone their friend had at twenty was honey to this voice’s vinegar. Yuffie felt her heart dive down as the four of them exchanged glances, trying to deliberate their position non-verbally.

“Don’t make me force one of you out here. I could, you know.” They watched her emerge fully out onto the platform from her point of concealment. “There are seven of you. Come out slowly. I am here for good, not ill, despite your assumptions.”

Slowly, they emerged. At Vincent’s insistence, Yuffie was at the rear of her group. She was the last to see Tifa and could not stay the gasp from her mouth.

Her face was marked with lines of black and purple. Her eyes glowed yellow. A white streak had formed in her hair, just at the right temple. While she had never dressed very modestly, her practical style had changed to something more provocative, in stays and leather.

The strangest part, however, happened as she moved. Parts of her seemed to phase in and out of reality. If an arm moved; first the phantom skin moved, then the core. Flesh tone, then purple. The human mask seemed like it could no longer contain the alien.

“Tifa!” Barret cried out. “Why? Why’d ya…” His voice trailed off, losing muster on its way to accusing an old friend of murder. “Marlene was there,” he finished lamely.

The voice seemed softer, nearly human this time. “I saved her.” Her eyes flashed, and the voice was cold again. “She could’ve died like the rest of them, but Tifa insisted. A lot of things became messy to keep Tifa happy.”

Yuffie’s stomach suddenly lurched, and she leant against the stone wall next to her. _Not now, this is not the time_. She turned and placed her forehead against its cool hardness. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and saw that the “wall” was the large mako crystal Vincent had seen on the ridge.

Her scream interrupted Tifa’s rambling. “NO!”

Vincent went back to her, as a smirk crossed Tifa’s face. Her fists pounded and pounded, and as he reached her, he grabbed one arm. The other reached out, palm raised, fingertips positioned to brush the face that was buried inside.

The blue eyes were wide open, yet sightless. Arms outstretched but touching nothing. Face contorted in pain, lips locked in a silent scream, Vincent was eye-to-eye with Cloud Strife.

Rude stepped in, supporting Yuffie, even as Vincent turned soundlessly from the gruesome sight in front of him. The only noise anyone heard was the cock of a pistol.

He had a gun to Tifa’s head before anyone realized it, even her. Yet, she laughed.

“I will not hesitate to kill you.”

“She was right.”

“What?” he snarled, digging the barrel deeper into her temple.

“Tifa said if I took him, no one would notice. I had to make a show. Lure you all here. She thought, _hoped_ , you would all jump at the first sign of trouble. But no one came. So I stole myself back, piece by piece. I came back to finish the job with Cloud, but there was one piece missing.”

A beat.

“ _You._ ”

·   


Her fingernails dug into his neck, tearing his flesh, loosing an artery. He lurched to his knees, still holding the pistol up, and she kicked it away. An afterthought. His blood spurted like a fountain, and she held her hand out, thrilling in the flow.

“Fuck!” A hail of machine gun bullets flew straight towards Tifa, Barret’s full force unleashed. Red XIII dove back behind the boulder, and Rude fell down, pressing Yuffie to the ground under him.

It was unnecessary. Tifa held up her free hand. The bullets slowed to a stop as they approached her, and they fell harmlessly to the snow. The hand thrilling in Vincent’s blood was starting to hold what appeared to be an iridescent blue blob.

“Vincent,” Yuffie sobbed.

“I think it’s finished,” Tifa said, half to herself. She held up her hand, and the blue coated it, traveling down around her body before slowly sinking in. The other hand made a simple gesture, and the bleeding stopped.

Vincent weakly touched his hand to his neck in surprise, then brought it down and stared. Something was… _different_.

“You meddling cretins,” she said lightly, in her cold voice. “You always thirst for power, and then fuck it up every time you get it. Miserable fools. I give you a gift. A gift of myself, by myself, and you squander it. Afterwards, you take my body bit and parcel, spreading it to the ends of the universe like chaff on the wind.”

She paused. “Every single one of you I inhabited was the same. You wanted petty things. If you had power, you used it to punish others for wanting the same petty things. Even this one. I only kept on because she told me something…of someone.” A smile. “My other half. Beyond this stupidity, she was not petty. She must have had my gift, but she gave it up for this.” She gestured around her in scorn.

“I take it back.” Tifa’s face contorted in a snarl. “I took it back.” She kicked Vincent lightly. “Every last one of you is now the pathetic mortal you should be. Even him.” She strode towards the mako crystal and, in one movement, she caused it to shatter. With another twitch of her fingers, Cloud was floating prostrate. She allowed him to rest on a raised, flat stone.

“Is he dead?” Vincent’s voice was a hoarse whisper.

“I have no mercy. Yet, I did not kill anyone that _she_ cared about. That was the pact we made when we started this arrangement.” Tifa’s hand slid up, caressing the light green orb that now sat inside the materia pendant. “However, this one…this one, she thought suitable for my purpose. I want to trade. _Corpus corpori_. That she was sacrificed while this waste lives…”

“She’s going to try to resurrect _Aeris_?” Yuffie heard Red XIII mutter behind her. “She’ll kill fifty, yet can’t let the murdered have peace?”

A broad smile passed over her face, and she raised her arms up to the heavens. Streams and tendrils of the Lifestream began to pass upwards, passing over, around, and through her on their route to the sky. They all heard a buzzing noise off in the distance, steadily approaching. “Make me whole again,” Tifa’s voice prayed.

The buzz increased to a roar, almost like an engine. A shadow appeared overhead, steadily growing.

“Holy hell, look at that damn thing!” Cid yelled from across the platform. “That is a beautiful piece of fuckin’ aircraft!”

·   


For it was actually an airship. The nose was slim like the head of a serpent, and its wings flowed back from the center cockpit. Bright and red, like a fierce dragon, it steadily descended downward almost vertically, landing nearly on top of them.

A set of steel stairs descended, and they watched in awe as two figures emerged, followed by others. Catching their attention first was a man with tousled, shaggy hair, carrying the strangest example of a sword that they had ever seen.

In front of him, on her knees, a young woman had burst forth. She had short dark hair, but familiar marks on her face and a yellow glow to her own eyes. She locked eyes with Tifa, and one word escaped her lips.

·   


_“Hyne.”_


	6. Tempus Morieris I

~~Requiescat in Sanguinem~~  
 _Tempus Morieris_  
Circus Vitae

I.

A petite woman snuggled into the cushy leather armchair near the window in the presidential office. She stared outside, watching the transports zoom past in their clear tubes. It was on days like today that she missed home. Any of them.

The White SeeD ship had been like a prison only in that she couldn’t leave. It was bland; yet, every day she could see the clear sea and the arching spines of porpoises dancing in the sunlight. Every evening she could see the sun sink, tracing lavender and vermillion in bright streaks across the sky.

The stone orphanage had been cold, damp, and musty, as buildings of that age and design tend to be. There was a shore to scour. Surf made for feet to dance in, sand for castles, and seashells for collecting. Fields of flowers and tree. Friends and companionship.

As for Winhill, that was always family. In the back of her mind, sometimes, she could recall a sweet lullaby and a breeze of perfume. Freesia and honeysuckle. Every once and awhile, she would catch a whiff of wildflower in some florist-sent bouquet, and she would revert to the three year old searching for her mama, and never, ever finding her. The midsummer stars and the smell of threshed grain could take her back to that one moment: Raine exhausted, her arms barely strong enough to hold her newborn, and her one repeated question. _“Where are you, Laguna?”_

 ·  


Whether for good or bad, Esthar had left very little impression upon her. Despite the bright futurism, the cold urban landscape was as cold and unfriendly as the Lunar Base, adrift in orbit. Almost as bad as Deling City, which she hadn’t though of as bad, until…

“Elle?” Laguna stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. “Kiros told me that you were here. Is something wrong?”

She turned to him, eyes brimming. “Yes,” she whispered.

He walked over to her, sitting down on the arm of the chair. He wrapped an arm around her. “You know that your Uncle Laguna is always here. What is it?”

“It’s gone.”

He blinked. “What’s…gone?”

“My power. It’s gone.” She sniffled. “I’m…so-sorry.” Her face in her hands, she began to cry openly.

“But…how? Elle…I don’t understand. You talked about getting rid of it, but Odine said he couldn’t do it. That his specialty was sorceress power.”

“Odine screwed up, because a sorceress sucked it right out of me. And I’ve been looking around, with my eyes and ears open. Every person who’s had some sort of specialness…unusual powers, magic. It’s disappeared. With one common bond.” She swallowed.

“What is it?” Laguna was a very good man, but very literal, and horrible at guessing games. Ellone remembered beating him often at things like charades.

“All of us, people who have had our abilities _stolen_ , had been near Rinoa.”

His expression was one of pure shock. “Why on earth…”

“I was in Galbadia, Deling City, on vacation. They hold a festival to honor the peace called between Galbadia and Balamb Gardens, you know. I wanted to go see it. Of course, Squall was invited. So _she_ was there. I only spent a few minutes with them…the energy in the room got all weird…” She fiddled with one of the buttons on the chair’s back. “I don’t know how, but all I know is she gave me this bizarre smile as she walked away…and I suddenly felt like I was _naked_ , for all to see.” She blinked furiously, and a few more tears fell down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, honey.” He pulled her closer to him in a hug, as she cried into his shoulder. “…but…what do you want me to do?”

“Huh?”

“I’m not a clueless old kook,” Laguna said. “I know that you were in Galbadia a few _months_ ago, and you’re coming here now. You’re looking for help.”

“I want to know why. And I want to stop her. It’s not just the principle; it’s scary. She was already so powerful…”

“What do you want me to do? Arrest her? She lives in another country. Kidnap her? That’s sure to lead out to full out war with her father _and_ her boyfriend. Who’s _my_ son.”

“Can you ask Squall to come here?” Ellone asked.

“I can. Why?”

“I want to talk to him. And go to Odine. I don’t blame Rinoa, this might be even more dangerous _for_ her. But something needs to be done.”

Laguna nodded.

She settled back against her “uncle’s” shoulder, slowly calming herself down. A piece of herself was missing that she would never get back, but she could help make sure that didn’t have to happen to anyone else, just because they had a touch of Hyne’s gift.

* * *

Squall paused in front of the door to his quarters. _I shouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable walking into my own place._ He took a deep breath before sliding the keycard into its reader. The light flashed green, and the door slid into its pocket with a _whoosh_.

He found Rinoa sitting on the couch, watching the news on the television. Suddenly, a whistling sound drifted from the kitchenette. He walked towards it to investigate.

The tea kettle, however, was already being taken care of. A force that worked like invisible hands lifted the steaming container, removed the infuser, and poured the hot liquid into two waiting mugs, never spilling a drop. He rolled his eyes as they began floating through the air, towards the coffee table in the front room.

“Rin?”

“Yeah, hon?” She had a mug in her hand now; giving him a pointed look, she deliberately blew on the liquid before taking a sip.

“You know how I feel about that.” He paused. “I’ve asked more than once.”

“And you know that _not_ using my powers doesn’t magically mean I’m _not_ a sorceress!” She took another drink. “Besides, Squall, what does it matter what I do when you’re not here? You’re not around to get uncomfortable…”

“The point is that I came in, and you didn’t stop.” He smoothed his chin length hair back with his hand. “You’ve been doing this an awful lot lately; I wouldn’t bring it up, otherwise.” He looked down at her, the one who had taught him so much. How to be open, how to be free…and every time he saw her face, it seemed more closed off to him.

She pulled her hair behind one ear, and he saw a faint purple line running across her temple to her eyelid. “I forgot. Between the news and the whistling teapot, it didn’t register that you were _in_ the room yet. Plus,” her voice softened as she looked up at him with puppy-dog eyes, “I made some for you. Why don’t we start over? You can walk back in the door, and I can carry your after-work drink right to you…” She reached up and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt.

This wasn’t anything new. Ever since that first, fumbling night after the world-saving-celebration-ball-thing (Selphie’s name), Rinoa had been using sex as a bargaining chip. He was beginning to wonder how her brain functioned.

_Squall doesn’t like me using my sorceress powers frivolously? Sex._

_Squall wants to look for jobs outside of Garden that may accidentally lead to a locale closer to Caraway? Sex._

_Squall wants to spend more time with friends? Sex._

_Talk about problems. Sex._

_Talk. Sex. Talk. Sex._

There was a time in his life--around seventeen or so, big surprise!--where Squall would have been definitely content, probably ecstatic, if every time someone wanted to talk to him, have a big, long, drawn-out discussion, he could substitute sex instead.

He had been living the dream of teenage boys and half-matured men for three years. He was sick of it. “Rin.” He lightly grasped her hands, disengaging them from his clothing. “I’m serious.”

“So am I. You’ve had a long day at work, and you don’t need to do any more thinking. Just let me handle it.” She leaned in, aiming for that _spot_ on his neck.

He gently pushed her back. “There’s nothing _to_ handle. You keep disregarding something important that I keep asking for. You wanted me to open up and talk, and here I am. You ignore it, so I have to wonder if you even care.”

“Of course I care, Squall.” Tears formed in her eyes.

“You never did things like this at first, didn’t care. Why is it so different now? You went from ‘normal’ to magic coursing through you, and it takes years to decide to use it?”

“It takes time, to get used to anything.” Rinoa leaned back into the couch cushions.

“You know why you can’t walk around Garden using magic on everything!”

“Garden this, Garden that! This is my home now, too.” She pouted.

He sighed. “Maybe you don’t have any higher role here, but I’m headmaster. No one’s supposed to use magic outside of the training center, except in an emergency. Even me. Just because yours is innate, doesn’t make it any different.”

She crossed her arms. “I think you just don’t want me to do anything on my own.”

“You’ve always been free to go and do whatever you wanted.” Squall sat down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You _wanted_ to live here. You didn’t _mind_ not having a job. But I ask one thing of you, and you can’t do it?” He frowned. “I don’t know, maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion.”

“… _maybe_?” she muttered.

“I need a break.”

Rinoa whipped her head around. “You want to break up?”

“No. I just want to go somewhere on my own next week, when I take that time off. You’re free to go wherever you want, too. But I need some alone time.”

“To go party with anyone you can find, I’m sure!”

“It’s not that! Jeez, now _you’re_ blowing things out of proportion.” He took her hand. “Not an us-break, a people break. I spent most of my life a loner, and now I’ve spent the better part of three years constantly with you. I love you to death, but I guess I can’t give up being a loner cold turkey. I need a fix.”

She sniffled. “But I thought we were going to go somewhere fun.”

“I don’t want you to miss out on fun. You can find Selphie, ring up Zone and Watts, whatever you’d like. Rent a car, take a train, whatever.  I’ll give you some cash for the fare. I just want some time by myself, that’s all. You can’t get alone time when you run a school by day and come home to someone at night, no matter how awesome she is.”

Rinoa nodded and jumped up. “I’ll go make a couple of calls.” She kissed him on the cheek before walking to the bedroom.

Squall closed his eyes, leaning back. _What the_ hell _am I doing?_

·  


_“But_ he _started it!” Tim cried._

_“That’s not in dispute,” Squall said. “The problem is that you took it upon yourself to finish it. Instead of coming to me, or one of your instructors.”_

_“He threw a damn fireball at me.”_

_“I understand where you’re coming from.”_ I would have kicked the guy’s ass here to Tuesday, myself. _Squall gave a small smile. “But you’re not just here to learn combat, but to learn discipline and self-control. If you spar and let your emotions get the best of you, serious things can happen.” He gestured to the scar on his face. “This thing wasn’t something cool I earned battling sorceresses through time. A ‘rival’ at Garden cut my face during a stupid spar. Which also happened to involve a fireball.”_

_“Really?”_

_“Fireballs are par for the course. Not that they aren’t hot and nasty, but everyone uses them. Boring to fight with, actually.” He made a few notes in Tim’s file. “Anyway, I will deal with Jordan later. As for you, you lose town privileges for the next three weekends. If you need supplies for practice or assignments, talk to your instructor or Dr. Kadowaki.”_

_“Okay,” he said, his voice dejected._

_Squall nodded towards the door. “You can go now.”_

_The cadet jumped up, walking briskly towards the door._

_“Oh, and Tim?”_

_He turned back._

_“If he’s got a fire-happy GF junctioned, next time funnel some ice magic into your attack. It will knock him flat.”_

_Tim grinned. “Thanks, Headmaster!”_

_As the student ran out the door, he folded up the file, sticking it into the out pile, for his secretary to re-file. Suddenly, said-secretary’s voice came in over the intercom on his phone._

“Squall, there’s a call for you on line one.” _She paused._ “He might be pranking, though, he says he’s the president of Esthar.”

__

_An uncharacteristic chuckle. People still didn’t believe that a twenty year old could be a successful headmaster, let alone know most the world’s leaders. “I’m picking it up,” he said._

_He lifted up the receiver._ I wonder what Laguna wants. _He punched the “1” button. “Squall Leonhart.”_

“Squall! Long time no see, eh?”

_“Not as long as some times.”_

“True, true!” _Laguna’s nervous laugh came through loud and clear, even over miles of telephone wire._ “I’m glad I caught you in your office.”

_“Why, did you hire someone high-up whose files need pulling? Because I can tell my secretary to give you whatever access you need.”_

“I appreciate it…but I’m calling for a different reason. I’d like you to come to Esthar. Just a couple days, nothing more.”

_“Rinoa and I were trying to figure out where to take our vacation…”_

Another nervous laugh. “Actually, Squall, I’d rather you come on your own. This is more of a business trip I’m asking of you.”

_“Business?” Squall groaned. “Let’s see…you’re being secretive, you’re asking for my help, don’t_ tell _me there’s another war brewing.”_

“It’s a little more personal than that. I would like to talk to you, and so would Ellone.”

_“I’ll try my best, but no guarantees.”_

  ·

Squall removed a piece of paper from his pocket. A date and time. He was going to Esthar in three days. Even though he disliked the city. Even though he tried to actively _not_ acknowledge Laguna as his father.

Even though he was sure he was going to hate the news.


	7. Tempus Morieris II

II.

Laguna paced around his office. _Any time now._ Ever since he had made his phone call to Squall, he had been nervous. He’d been good at managing to cover this up, except when Kiros was around.

Voicing any and all doubts.

“What makes you so sure he’ll show up? You’re giving him bad news about his _girlfriend_ , and you know how people are.”

“I already thought of that, Kiros, my friend. I didn’t actually tell him yet that we’re going to be talking about Rinoa. Besides, Ellone has been collecting evidence to prove that she’s not the only one whose abilities have decreased after coming in contact with Rinoa.” He nodded. “If he doesn’t believe that, he won’t believe anything.”

“Why contact him at all?” Kiros toyed with one of his braids. “If he doesn’t like what you’re saying, it will only make things much, much harder.”

“I don’t have much of a choice.” He sighed. “This is really the only way to go about things subtly.”

A knock on the door interrupted them.

“Come in!”

Ellone stepped inside, Dr. Odine behind her.

“I was hoping you were him!” Laguna sat down in his chair.

“Vat use vould he be to you, if you had nozzing to tell him yet?” Dr. Odine held up a small box. “Or to give him?”

“I hope he believes us,” whispered Ellone.

·   


Another knock.

“Who is it?” called Laguna cheerfully.

“Headmaster Leonhart of Balamb Garden, sir,” he heard an assistant outside say.

“Let him in.”

Squall walked in, his hair a tad longer than it had been the last time anyone else in the room had seen him. Instead of his old gear of leather and black, he was wearing a gray shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He still carried his gun blade, slung in a holster behind him.

Laguna ran up and gave him a hug. “So good to see you!”

“Whatever.” But a small hint of a smile contradicted his words. He gave the room a quick glance. “So, something _is_ going on, then?”

“No,” said Kiros, “we were just all overjoyed with the thought of seeing you.”

Squall grimaced. “That bad?”

“Sit down.” Ellone gestured to the comfy leather armchair. After he was settled down, she handed him a folder. “I have a bunch of clippings that tell a very strange story.”

He pulled one out. _The Dollet Healer Heals No More -- Famed miracle worker claims his power has “left him.”_ Another. _Famed Centra Circus Loses Half Its Acts -- Owner says show must go on, but performers say they_ can’t _go on._ Then the next: _Child Piano Prodigy Off-Key -- Long awaited performance a bust…his manager/father blames the South Timbre Musicale Company’s “faulty instrumentation.”_

Squall looked up into her expectant face. “I don’t get it.”

“People everywhere with special abilities are claiming to lose them. I did a search for buzz words like ‘gifted’ and ‘prodigy’ in various magazines and newspapers. No one identified as such in the past _five_ years doesn’t have an article like one of _these_ written about them.” Ellone looked him in the eye. “Even if some people out there are fakers, you can’t tell me all of these people are frauds that got exposed near the exact. same. time.”

He flipped through the clippings. “This is a bit odd, besides. That circus came to Balamb a week before this one was written…I remember seeing that pianist in concert, and he played amazingly. Never saw the Dollet Healer, but his office is right next door to this stupid little café Rinoa insisted she wanted to eat at, so we did...”

“There’s one more report, though, that’s not in there.”

“Why not? It must be important. This is a bit bizarre.”

She sat down on the chair next to him. “Because I thought you needed to hear it first-hand, and I would never go to a newspaper or magazine with this. I’ve lost _my_ power, Squall.”

Squall’s eyes softened. “Elle, I’m so sorry…do _you_ know how, then?”

“I have an idea, but it’s not pretty.” She swallowed. “Do you remember that small dinner party in Deling City, on Pax Day?”

“Yeah.” He smiled. “It was a nice dinner.”

“That was when. Someone there is responsible.”

He jumped up. “Well, that’s easy, then! We just figure out who all was on the guest list, do a little investigation, and then…”

“I already know. And your investigation would lead you to all those clippings I collected. _For you_. Haven’t you noticed the coincidence, yet? You said it yourself.”

“I did?” His voice was wary.

“Didn’t you think it an odd coincidence that you had been in the presence of _all_ of those people just a brief time before they lost whatever made them special?”

“You think that _I_ \--”

“No, Squall.” She put her hand on his arm. “The person who is beside you. Already powerful, but it wasn’t enough.”

“Rinoa?” He looked at her, horror in his eyes. Then, he turned and stormed out the door.

Ellone threw a panicked look around the room, but the other three looked as baffled as she felt. “Don’t. Move,” she ordered, as she ran after Squall.

·   


“Zat did not go very vell,” said Dr. Odine.

“Nope,” Laguna agreed.

“Really?” Kiros shrugged. “Seemed much, much better than what I expected."

* * *

“Squall!”

He heard the footsteps behind him, but kept walking.

They stopped, but she tried one more time. “…please.”

He turned around. “Elle, this is a lot to deal with, and I want to be by myself.”

“I know it is, but we want to help! We don’t just automatically think that Rinoa is an _enemy_.” Ellone had caught up to him. “That’s why Dr. Odine was there.”

“That barely registered,” he replied candidly. He glanced upwards. _You had to have suspected something like this…hell, you got into a fight with Rin about something similar to this, before explaining the Esthar trip._

“He’s been doing some research involving sorceress powers, ever since we had the fun of that Adel spectacle during the war. I think you should hear what he has to say, before you go off and brood.” She offered him a hand. “What do you say, li’l bro?”

Squall grabbed it and nodded. “I guess I don’t have a choice, do I? I have to help her.”

A quirk of a brow. “Don’t you _want_ to?”

He brushed his hair back. “It’s not that, it’s that my wants wouldn’t even factor in, here.”

_Plus_ , he thought to himself as they made their way back to Laguna’s office, _I’ve discovered that once you’ve saved someone’s life that many times, you’re stuck with them on some level, no matter what._

_It’s like Karma saying, “Since you think this is such a great idea, it’s your problem now.”_

· _  
_

Laguna nodded at him as he walked back through the door. “Welcome back.”

“I’m not magically okay with this. I just agreed to hear the options.” Squall crossed his arms.

Kiros stepped in. “That’s why we brought Odine here. He’s been looking into the situation--”

“I have predicted zis for years!” The doctor’s voice reigned, arrogant and triumphant, his standard fare. “Zee nature of zee sorceress power is zat it can only survive while it’s in pieces! Gazzer up zee pieces, and while you have all zee power…zee power is too strong for you!”

Squall shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense. And why was it in pieces to begin with?”

·   


“Vell, some places in zis world have a children’s tale. A bedtime story. It is about Hyne zee sorcerer and a man called Vascaroon. In it, zhey say Hyne is zis creator, but he was merely zee precursor to all sorceresses. He had innate power and ultimate control over it. Zhis made all the other people in zee vorld very uncomfortable. Once zhere were enough to overtake him, zhey demanded a share of the power!

“So, he gave zhem somezhing, and left. So much fighting, among all, and then zhey discovered it was skin…not his true power. Vascaroon did this…and he made a big show of destroying zee skin. Vhat he really did vas spread zee powers in zee skin among all of zhem. Because, you see, zee whole skin would not listen to normal people, but diluted…it vould.

“No one ever discovered vhere Hyne vent. He became legend, and zee people conzentrated on zee sorceresses.”

 ·

“What does that have to do with Rinoa?”

“Her powers are not diluted. In fact, her powers are strange, because of zee time loop with Edea and Ultimecia, and Rinoa getting hers from Edea, zhere is no way to tell vhat is original.”

Squall scratched his head. “None of the babbling, okay?”

“First, zhere was _one_ skin. _One_ set of powers. In zee time loop, Rinoa gets Edea and Adel’s powers, which eventually go to Ultimecia. But Ultimecia gives her powers to Edea. So, any ozher powers, like Adel’s, would add in infinitely vith every time loop. And zee skin may be grabbing every bit of power, searching, seeking… _reunion_ vith Hyne.”

“This Hyne fella disappeared a few thousand years ago, though?” Laguna asked. “I wanna know how.”

“No one knows. Or, I should say, no one _knew_. But I, Odine, have figured zhis out! Think of zee Ragnarok!”

“No offense, doctor, but that ship was built in Esthar. The three of us witnessed stages of its manufacture,” Kiros said.

“But vhat vas it based on? Centra legends of a large, shiny, _metal_ dragon? Ve all know dragons do not come like zhis. Also…” At this point, he final grabbed something from the files that he’d hauled along with him. “…here is evidence in the Centra ruins…somezhing that looks like an airship. Hyne is not on zhis world!”

Squall fell back against the wall, exasperated. Not only was he sitting here, forced to listen to Dr. Odine go on and on, nothing that was being said mattered. At all. “I’ll come back when you figure out how we can help Rinoa,” he said, moving to leave.

“Vait,” said Dr. Odine. “Here.” He handed a box to Squall. “In zhis box, zhere is a very special bangle. It is the most powerful magic containment device I have ever created. You need to get zhis on Rinoa and bring her back here. I believe two zhings. One - Hyne’s skin vill not rest until it reunites vith Hyne, so it will search for Hyne, using her body. Two - Zee skin, powers, vill leave Rinoa to become one vith Hyne. She vill be saved when zhis happens.”

He looked in the box, at what appeared as a very nondescript gold band. “Will she be back to normal with this thing on?”

“She vill still be herself. I don’t know if she remembers zee things done for zee skin, but she remembers her own vants, desires. If she vould refuse to come here vith you, it won’t change because of zee bracelet. Yet, ve need to bring her here. Ve will analyze her thoughts…see if ve can determine vhere Hyne is, and help her before anything more serious happens here.”

A nod. “I hate to be keeping this a secret from her, but if she’s really…changing people, I can’t trust her to be aware enough to help stop it.” He looked at Ellone. “Have I earned my alone time yet?”

She smiled and opened her mouth--her expression changed, and she turned to her set of clippings. “Hang on.” She walked over to him. “Here,” she said, handing him a pamphlet.

“What is this?” He turned it over in his hands. “Trabia school for the gifted…”

“The people over there didn’t feel happy towards Garden after the missile incident. So they opened up a competing school.”

“I’ve heard of it,” Squall said.

“Well, it’s attracted a lot of prodigies that aren’t interested in the ideals of Garden. All mental and artistic studies, instead of anything militaristic. It’s a bit remote, and there’s very little reason she could have used to get you to visit there. So far, though, the kids seem untouched…” She trailed off, seeing how pale he’d become. “What is it?”

·   


_“You can get ahold of Selphie…” “Little reason she could have used…” “…get Selphie…” “…to visit there…”_

“I’ve got to get back to Garden. Now.” Squall’s voice had a tone of urgency that they’d hardly ever heard before. “There’s not a level of power consumption where she’d be completely taken over, is there?”

“Zhat…I do not know,” Dr. Odine admitted. “Better to be careful.”

“I should go. I’m sorry.” He looked around the room. “Elle, Kiros…” A pause. _Not any different than anyone else._ “…Laguna.” As he strode through the door, set to rush back to the airstrip, Dr. Odine called after him.

“Don’t forget to bring her back to here!”  



	8. Tempus Morieris III

**  
**

III.

“The most important move you can make as a sharpshooter is to detach yourself from your emotions. Think of your primary target as nothing more than one of the bulls-eyes in your practice range. If you have to shoot, aim; don’t think.”

Squall heard the instructor inside shuffling papers.

“Now, for your assignment…”

The classroom was a chorus of groans.

“…now, do you want me to double it? No? Okay. I want you to write me two pages on what sorts of problems can arise if you don’t detach yourself from your mission.” Perfectly synched, the class bell chimed over the Garden’s speakers. “That’s it for today. I hope to have some interesting reading tomorrow…hopefully not as idiotic as last time?”

After waiting for the stream of students to finish using the door, Squall entered the classroom. “Interesting lesson. They say ‘those who can’t, teach,’ and it’s kind of ironic here, don’t you think?”

“Most know what happened back in Deling City.” Irvine finished sorting through the pile on his desk and looked up. “What’s up? I know you don’t need to observe me again this term. And what happened to your vacation?”

“It got cut short. I have something important to ask you.”

“Shoot.”

He blinked. _I want answers, but I want them to be the best ones. When I ask you where Selphie is, you say she took Rinoa to visit Edea. Or Timber. Or the beach, anything but…_

“…Squall?”

“Rinoa wasn’t in the apartment when I came back, and I was wondering if you knew where she ended up going.”

“Oh,” Irvine laughed. “Of course. Well you can rest easy, my laconic friend, as I know for a fact that she went on a little trip away with my Sefie.”

“I’ll rest easy, if you can promise me they didn’t set foot in Trabia.”

“What?” His smooth features wrinkled as his brow furrowed. “Why, that was exactly where they were meaning to go!”

He leaned forward, until his hands rested on the front of the desk for support. “…shit.”

“What is it? Are they in danger? Sef just wanted to visit home, and…”

“I will explain, because I’m going to need help. That was last bell just now, right?”

He nodded.

“I want you to find Quistis and Zell. I’ll explain this all in my office in an hour, sooner if you all can make it. The longer we wait,” Squall said, “the worse it may be.”

* * *

Squall didn’t know why he was so surprised that the three of them had showed up to the meeting. Or believed his testimony regarding Rinoa. Or decided to come along and help him. Even after all this time, the “friend” concept was still hard to comprehend. _But they just believed me…even though Rinoa is their friend, too._ His contradictory voiced chimed against this thought, though. _They want to help her for that very reason._

The Ragnarok touched down just south of the grounds of Trabia Garden. They had about a mile’s walk east, before they’d hit the grounds of Trabia School for the Gifted. While they could have landed closer, they were hoping for an element of surprise…and possibly hope beyond hope that the two girls had only spent their time visiting Selphie’s old friends living in the small village beyond the old Garden.

They were all clothed in black and under the influences of both haste magic and a very weak float spell. They quickly made the hike and approached the school grounds, a stately looking manor.

“So, have the plans changed any?” Zell hopped back and forth between each foot, becoming even more manic under his support spells.

“We just see if we see either one of them. If we do, we find a way to naturally make ourselves known. Claim that there’s an emergency. Bring them out to the rendezvous point, where Squall will be waiting.” Quistis looked over at him.

Squall held up Odine’s box. “While you’re about,” he said, “keep your eyes and ears open for news of the students. Check that none of them are distressed, from what you can tell…”

She put a hand on his shoulder. “That will be hard to know. While some of them definitely have powers that are related to the sorceresses’, the majority of them are probably just bright, ambitious. More like I was, less like Sis was.”  


He gave her no response beyond a jerky shrug.  


“Well, then.  Let’s go,” Irvine said.

·   


About an hour had passed, give or take a minute. Squall couldn’t believe that the school was so hard to scout out, with or without a high level of stealth. He’d expected a “sorry, they’re not here” response within a half hour at the least.

He shrugged himself deeper into his old black jacket, trying to ward off the chills that crept up his spine. It wasn’t the right time of year for a deep freeze, but Trabia was cold by default. It had to be the mountains.

Suddenly, he saw three figures emerge from the grounds. Rinoa was at the head of the group, with Irvine and Selphie arm-in-arm behind her. She tilted her head to the side, appearing to read his face for…something.

It was easy for Squall to stonewall under scrutiny. He’d had lots of practice. Though he nearly showed _something_ when he noticed her eyes had a yellow glow, like a cat’s.

She blinked, and her eyes appeared normal again. Like donning a mask, her face became the picture of worry. “Irvine told me that there was an emergency! Are you okay?” With that, she flew to Squall’s arms, wrapping her own around his neck.

He swallowed. _This is it_. He wrapped one arm around her waist, drawing her in even tighter. “Everything’s going to be okay,” he whispered. “I promise.” Reaching up with his other hand, he clapped Odine’s band around her upper left arm.

Rinoa looked down with an expression of surprise mingled with horror, watching the armband knit itself together to an impenetrable circle. With her face turned at that angle, Squall could see that more lines of purple and black had woven their way into her hairline and down her neck. Her body began to rock back and forth, lips moving in words that refused to form. Finally, her voice broke through. “Knights don’t do this,” she said in a half-sigh, before she dropped unconscious to the flurry-coated ground.

·   


“…wha…?” Selphie looked up at Irvine, with a hint of suspicion clouding her expression.

“Whatever power was in Rinoa decided that it wasn’t quite enough,” he offered in explanation.

Squall reached out, touching Rinoa’s face. _I’ll make everything okay._

Irvine pulled out a PHS. “Q, Z, we’ve got everything taken care of. Let’s head out and up.” He smiled grimly. “They know to meet us at the Ragnarok.” Leaning down, he gently lifted Rinoa’s prostrate form, carrying her body with ease. “Come on, Sef.”

Selphie flashed him a sympathetic smile, before following behind Irvine. Squall went behind them, completing the line.

_I’m going to work everything out. I promise._

* * *

Selphie blinked in surprise. “They already knew we were coming?” Two of Odine’s assistants had come forward with a stretcher the instant the Ragnarok touched down.

Squall’s mouth became a firm line. “Where do you think I got the information on what she’s done? Where she would next plan to go?”

“…oh. So…you didn’t even talk to her about this, then?”

“Considering she’d go overemotional and defensive the instant I mentioned anything that might possibly correspond to her sorceress powers? Hardly. Besides,” he said softly, “I doubt Rin did this on her own. And she hurt Ellone. What am I supposed to say? Was I supposed to wait until after the raided all the special abilities from the kids in that school you visited?”

There was silence in the cockpit, until they heard the _whoosh_ of the door opening to the corridor beneath them. Quistis and Zell had gone down to guide the assistants up to where they were needed.

“If Rin wasn’t in control of herself, none of what I could or should have said _would_ have swayed her. I wouldn’t matter. And if Rin would do this on her own…I still wouldn’t matter. All I can do is try and help her.”

“Over here,” said Quistis as she reentered the cockpit. She loosened the straps that had held Rinoa semi-upright in one of the seats. The two assistants gently lifted her to the stretcher, while Zell held it steady.

They slowly began wheeling Rinoa back towards the door. Quistis followed behind, turning and pausing in the entrance to the cockpit.

“Come on,” she said. “I have a feeling we’ll all want to be in on the plans for fixing whatever’s gone horribly wrong.”

·   


Squall felt guilty as he walked with the others through Odine’s lab. _Laguna comes here to rescue Ellone from the same man I’m simply_ handing _Rinoa to. It’s like I can’t help but do the exact opposite of what he does._

“Velcome, all!” The doctor cried cheerfully. “Please put zee lady sorceress in zee containment chamber.” The two assistants followed his instructions, emerging with the empty stretcher. “Now, for now, ve vill seal zee doors. Zhis vay, ve can change zee armband to a lower power, speak vith zee young lady, but have her in a safe place!”

Squall shuddered with guilt as he watched the door being locked into place with a series of ridiculously complicated passwords.

“Thank you for bringing her here. It is zee safest place, for now.” Dr. Odine gestured to the door of the lab. Two women emerged, one of them Ellone. “I am turning zee switch to wake up Rinoa. Questions vill be asked to double-check my research. Vhile she is vaking, Miss Lorelei is going to explain to us vhat she has studied about Hyne.”

The woman smiled and smoothed back her red hair. “You’ve all heard the legend, I suppose? The most mysterious thing about the story, I thought, was always how Hyne completely disappeared at the end. He or She leaves this  skin behind, with only a fraction of his or her power, and is never seen again. Even if Hyne had moved on to some other place in the world, we would see his influence somewhere. The easiest thing to say, then, would be that Hyne didn’t exist.”

“But you think he did,” said Quistis.

“Yes, and I think the legend of the dragon Ragnarok, which Esthar’s ship was supposedly based on…was in actuality an ancient ship created by Hyne. Or, at the very least, used by Hyne to escape. Also, if Vascaroon broke up the pieces of the skin, that it was to keep it from going back to Hyne, more than because people were fighting over it. You don’t have to take my word for it, there will be plenty of time to talk with Esthar’s historians.”

“Why would there be plenty of time?” Squall pointed to Rinoa. “We’re not going to be able to contain her forever. Her powers are growing, whether it be from absorption or just something strange. We have to help her as soon as we can.”

“You misunderstand me,” Lorelei said. “I’m not saying we’re going to contain her forever, or even a long time. That didn’t work with Adel. She called to Rinoa from all the way out by the moon, and her consciousness disrupted radio waves all over the world. But we’ll have to contain her long enough to figure out how to travel to Hyne.”

“Wait!” Zell jumped up, gesturing wildly with his arm. “Are you saying that you’re going to shoot us off into space, on some wild chase after Hyne, on another _planet_?”

_Probably the first time he’s made sense in his life._ Squall gazed at Rinoa through the observation window. Was it just his imagination, or had she stirred a bit?

“We’re not sending you anywhere, unless the portion of Hyne in Rinoa can tell her where to go. But we’ve got the technology, for the most part.” Lorelei shot a pointed look towards Ellone.

“Wait. What if it’s millions and millions of miles away?” Zell scratched his head. “There’s some limit to how fast we could go, ain’t there?”

“Yes. It’s the speed of light. And we’ve got an engine that can propel the Ragnarok _close_ to the speed of light. The thing is, as you near the speed of light, time starts passing slower and slower for those inside the ship. So a place that might take you a hundred years to reach, using the Ragnarok’s normal engine velocity, would take you considerably less with the new engine. However, it would still probably require that you be put into some sort of stasis. We've already developed that technology; we used it when we sealed Adel away.”

 ·

“That’s way too easy,” said Squall. “There’s got to be a catch, and some reason you keep looking at Elle when she isn’t much of a scientist.” He turned away from the observation window.

Dr. Odine eyed him approvingly. “He is not a big fool, like I vould have thought.”

“Yeah, this sounds a bit fishy,” said Irvine. “Reminds me of an assignment we were given, to help everyone but ourselves.”

·   


“That’s not it,” said Lorelei. “ _If_ , and it still is an if, Hyne ends up being somewhere off of the planet, there’s two problems. The first is that currently, the only spacecraft we have to upgrade would be the Ragnarok. We’d obviously need your cooperation. The second is a bit more of a problem. It involves the time dilation--the change that happens inside the ship when you get close to light speed.

“Time will pass slowly when you are at the very high velocity. A journey of years could take months, weeks, or even days for you inside the ship. However, for everyone outside the ship, that is…all of us here, the years would pass. If Hyne ended up being relatively close, that’s not a big deal. If a year or so passed, you can plan for the absences in advance. But what if you have to travel somewhere that’s nearly 100 light years away? Two hundred years would have passed before you made it back home.”

 ·

Squall smirked knowingly. _So it’s a suicide mission. You’d be dead to everyone, but sentenced to some sort of freaky limbo. To be an out-of-it freak if you did return, or banished to some foreign planet if you didn’t._ “So…”

Lorelei looked up expectantly.

“…you’re saying those of us who would leave to find Hyne wouldn’t come back home, or, at least, to one they knew.” He paused, then added, half to himself, “We’d have to take Rin then, nothing good can come of returning hundreds of years after she’s died…”

“That might be the case,” she replied, “but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. There is an option. We have the plans, and the manpower. We even have a guarantee from a glimpse in our future that this invention will be a success.”

His look was a mixture of distrust and disbelief. He was opening his mouth to ask, _What the hell could you possibly have plans for?_ , when Quistis spoke up.

“It's Junction Machine Ellone, isn’t it? That’s why Sis is here.”

Ellone swallowed. “I promised myself that I would never knowingly have a part in this. I’ve tried for years, in vain, to get all the information on my powers back from Dr. Odine. I don’t even know if I can be of any help anymore…in this state…” She blinked hard. “But I’ve decided. If you all decide to go some place far away, just to help everyone else on the planet, then I will do all I can to find you a way to get back.”

“What’s the big deal, anyway?” asked Zell. “We already know that it falls into dangerous hands, but we also already know that we kicked the ass that those hands belonged to.”

“That’s right, Ellone.” Quistis smiled. “For that matter, the very fact that Ultimecia took over Edea, Adel, and Rinoa, as well as completed time compression just shows that the thing had to be created. You said yourself that you couldn’t change the past. Isn’t that part of the future now actually the past?  Our past?”

Selphie sank down into a chair. “You all are hurting my head.”

·   


Squall heard a voice, nearly as soundless as a whisper on the wind. _“I’m awake.”_ He immediately turned to the window of the containment chamber, and he saw Rinoa slowly sitting up. “Hey, Odine?” He nodded towards the observation window.

“She is vaking…good!” The doctor nearly ran over, then opened a panel on the wall. He flipped a few switches, and a projection appeared upon one of the chamber walls. They could all see the starfield in front of them and Rinoa’s form with the prime view of it. “Before ve start, let me varn you…I have taken great care that only zee sorceress half is avake. Do not listen to anyzhing except for Hyne’s location.”

Her eyes opened wider, exposing the new golden tint to her irises. She walked, slowly, to the projection on the wall. She lifted her hand to the display, watching as she slowly moved it. The projection, a complex map, moved in response to her own movement.

She turned, her eyes on Squall. _“What do you want from me?”_

He looked around. _Did anyone else hear that?_ But their eyes remained transfixed on the body of their friend.

_“Knight. You are to be my vessel of communication, as others are…”_ A pause, as she seemed to try and assess the situation completely. _“…close-minded and foolish.”_

He took a deep breath. “She’s talking to me.”

The others turned to him in surprise. Except for Dr. Odine, who was quite nonplussed. “I figured she had to pick vone of us!” A look of scrutiny. “Can you talk back?”

Squall made a face; what, was he supposed to just _think_ at her really, really hard?

_“Yes. I am being suppressed in these walls, and the voices outside are barely more than a murmur.”_

“Okay,” he said. “We can go back and forth. She says she can’t really hear any of you.”

“Ve’ll be too careful to believe zhat.” Dr. Odine shook his head. “All right. Tell her zhat ve are sympathetic to her mission. If ve are told vhere she vants to go, ve’ll send her zhere.”

“How do we know where she wants to go?”

“Zee map responds to her powers. She finds Hyne’s location on zee map; ve take zee coordinates and design a flight plan.”

 ·

Squall took a deep breath. _Rin--wait, you’re not Rinoa._

_“You can call me that, if it makes you feel better.”_

_It doesn’t matter. We have you here for two reasons. First of all, you’ve been doing some crazy things in Rinoa’s body, and we care about her. Next, we know that you’re on a mission._

The voice laughed, the sound pounding against the walls of his skull. _“What could_ you _possibly know of my motives?”_

_We know that you’re trying to become whole again. We know that you’re a piece of Hyne, and you want to find the rest._

The laughing stopped, and the sorceress’s voice changed to a softer tone. _“It’s been a long time. Hyne may not even exist anymore.”_

He restrained himself from rolling his eyes. _Liar. You wouldn’t be here, doing any of this, otherwise. You wouldn’t have gotten so excited as soon as I mentioned the possibility. If you cooperate…_

_“Cooperate? Listen, boy, just because you are a knight, does not mean that you can disrespect someone of my station.”_

_The last time you were able to form a coherent thought, us humans were easily scared by your tricks._ Squall sneered and turned away. _Now, we can seal you away until the end of time--or we find a way to destroy you._ He made a move, to start walking away, when he got the reaction he’d been hoping for.

_“Wait.”_ A moment’s pause. _“What do I have to do?”_

 _See the map in front of you? We need you to tell us where Hyne_ is _. Next, you have to be willing to lie dormant, under the power of the bangle, while we prepare for and go on this journey. We will help you any way possible once we’ve landed, on one condition._

The voice was cold, yet desperate. _“You’ll have already been given plenty. What more do you want?”_

_Just a simple promise to end the manipulation, the violence._

_“I can give you_ my _word.”_ She walked forward, reaching out towards the map. Galaxies zoomed by quickly as she soared through the image in front of her. _“However, it’s been a long time since I’ve known the mind of Hyne. I cannot promise you what will be done, once we’ve encountered.”_

Then they all watched, mesmerized, as she sped through and discarded star systems. Constantly in search of…something. Her speed began to slow; she closed her eyes. Without looking, she entered a system with six planets around a yellow star. “Hyne is here,” Rinoa’s voice said, as she pointed to the third planet.

Irvine leaned in to speak with Lorelei. “So just how far away is that place, darlin’?” he asked softly.

She was at a panel opposite the chamber, using a program to make calculations from the dimensions on the map. “Wow…” She punched a few more buttons. “I think simple distance measurements would seem useless to you. Let’s just put it this way. For you to make a round trip as fast as possible, by the time you got back here, about 250 years would have passed.”

Ellone hung her head at this. “I had hoped…”

 ·

Squall only half heard the conversation going on behind him. He was still staring through the glass, at the woman who had been by his side for over three years. She had pulled the map back so it just appeared as a distant solar system in a starfield. Suddenly, a large meteor hurtled into the system.

Rinoa pointed to the meteor, just like she’d pointed to a distant shooting star all those years ago. Then she turned and smiled at him; he saw nothing but the markings on her face and bright yellow eyes.

“I think it’s time to get to work. The sooner we can get over there, the sooner we can help her.” He paused. “Put her back to sleep, please.”

Squall turned his back and walked away.


	9. Tempus Morieris IV

**  
**

IV.

“I know this is hard for you,” Quistis said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Squall shrugged.

“…whatever?” she offered.

He laughed a little. “It’s going to be hard for all of us.” He gazed over at the Ragnarok, looking foreign and imposing on its upright launch-pad. “I think I’ve asked everyone else this about a thousand times, but…are you sure want to join us? Everything we've talked about is theoretical; we may not come back.”

“We’ve had a year and a half of planning.  Of researching.  Of working.  A year and a half, to drop out of this. We’ve all made our arrangements. You seem to forget that...oh, about five years ago, we were all risking, just like this. Here, now, it isn’t any different.”

“This is still the extreme solution!” He stared at her, bewildered. “We could seal Rinoa away. I’d rather not, but…”

She pushed her glasses up and raised an eyebrow. “Really, Squall. I thought you were smarter than this. We watched that very plan crumble and fail before our very eyes. It didn’t work with Adel, and poor Rinoa’s got at least triple that energy inside already, right now.”

“It still feels like you’re doing this all just for me.”

“I wish feeling like that made you happy.” She smiled. “Friends are good. Anyway,” she said, grabbing his arm and starting to pull, “if it makes you feel better, look at it this way. When we defeated Ultimecia, we saved the distant future. Now we’re trying to salvage as much of the immediate future as possible. For all of us.”

He allowed himself to be dragged towards mission control.

“Here’s a hint, Squall. Both you and Rinoa count as part of ‘us.’ You can’t escape.”

* * *

Lorelei looked at them. “There are six of you who are going as active crew on this mission. Rinoa has already been transferred to the Ragnarok, in her containment chamber. The rest of you will suit up shortly, and strap yourselves in for the launch. The coordinates for the mission have been programmed into the computer. You will all remain awake for stage one of the flight; this is also where all acceleration will take place. Once you have reached top speed, you will all enter your stasis chambers.

“If any problems occur during the flight, you will be automatically taken out of stasis to deal with them. The probability of these problems is very small. Otherwise, you will come out of stasis once you begin to decelerate. At this time, Rinoa will be awoken, but will remain under the influence of the Odine bangle. She will help you determine where to land the Ragnarok, in order to intercept Hyne. This is phase one of the mission.”

Squall cocked his head. _Phase one? That means that there are other phases…I don’t know if I like this._

She continued. “I have included among your supplies, some very small pieces of equipment. They are basically a modification of Odine’s suppression technology, as potent as we believe it is possible to make. They are about a 15 th order of magnitude above the level we currently use to contain Rinoa. As soon as Hyne and the sorceress ‘spirit’ within Rinoa combine, you should use the suppression field.

“I included an extra stasis chamber. This is for Rinoa’s return journey. Place Hyne’s form into the containment chamber and bring him back. You are making the journey out with a booster that functions solely to get you back off of that other planet again. It’s why we’re using a specialized launch here; the weight for two boosters’ worth of fuel is prohibitive.” Lorelei nodded to Ellone. “I’ve instructed Ellone on the proper buffer of time. Once you reach the outer limits of our system, you will come back out of stasis again. Ellone will use the Junction Machine, and about two months will have passed for us. I’ve determined that this is about how much you will age on this journey, between waking time and stasis. We are hoping to develop an ultimate solution to the sorceress issue while you are away.”

·

Everyone was nodding to themselves, each other, trying to psych themselves up. Squall felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. _Something here is going to go wrong. I’m not sure yet, but this is planned out a bit_ too _well._

“What if we don’t come back?” he heard his voice ask, the question emerging without permission from his brain.

Lorelei turned back from speaking with Ellone. “We all understand that this is possible. You may not succeed in every way. But we’ve tried as hard as we could to make it very likely. Don’t worry about us. I know that you all even attempting this in the first place...it helps us staying behind more than we could have ever hoped. You are still saving us.” Her eyes glittered, but her expression was hopeful beyond belief.

He could not bring himself to shatter it any. So he kept the rest of his doubts internalized. Staring out the window at the ship that was to be his home for the next “what would seem like 250 years to the outside world,” he simply kept his dark thoughts to himself.

_What if she breaks free? The containment isn’t enough? She gets us all alone in the dark depths of space, takes over, and then comes back for you all? Delighting in the irony of watching me die in the very doom I braved to save the body she inhabits, long ago?_

* * *

_T minus 30 minutes to lift off._ The voice on the loudspeaker carried on the wind, past the small Estharian crowd that had gathered at the launch site. The _actual_ reasons for the space flight had not been publicized. However, Laguna (or rather, Kiros acting on Laguna’s political behalf) had used the event to demonstrate that he wanted to return Esthar to its former technological glory.

The banners waved in the breeze beyond the presidential box. Second Wave: Beyond the Space Station. To the Stars, Esthar!

The crew of six walked out, in spacesuits, to cheers from those waiting to see lift off. Zell gave them a half smile and a thumbs-up, while Selphie paused and waved. Irvine, Quistis, and Ellone were all business, proceeding in the straightest route possible to the Ragnarok. This route still took them past the presidential box, and they all shook hands with Laguna before climbing up to board.

Squall had been trailing behind the lot of them, trying to quell his rising doubts. He was never one to follow intuition. He sometimes even doubted things he saw, because of the easily misled nature of human perception. He should have known…he should have seen all of this…

·   


_The tent in the Shumi village was warm and inviting. The furs and skins laid on their bed kept them warm through the night, and they snuggled up close to the fires with them during the day. Rinoa would cook dinner, and Squall, lunch. Their days consisted of sleeping in, exploring the area around them, playing with Moombas, and the requisite amount of sex for teenagers newly free and in love._

_Those used to customs of an earlier era would call a pleasure trip such as this a honeymoon._

_Squall took a deep breath of the mountain air. He had taken a small walk while Rinoa cut up some vegetables and got a stew going for that evening. It had been three weeks since the Garden celebration ball. The world was saved, his girlfriend had_ not _been shot into space, was_ not _in a coma, got naked for him all the time, and he had been given strict instructions by his boss that he would have the next few months off. And then, if he so desired, could go back to Garden and take over completely again._

So this is that “happy” thing I kept missing out on. _He sat on a large stone and leaned back, smiling to himself._

_“La-gu-na!” A moomba came running up the path. It scurried its way over to Squall and tugged on his pants leg. “La-gu-na!”_

_“What is it?” He leaned down a little, so his face was more on the creature’s level._

_“Hyne!” Its paw motioned furiously towards the tent. “La-gu-na! **Hyne**!”_

_“Is something wrong with Rin? Is she okay?”_

_The moomba just kept gesturing at the tent._

_“All right, all right.” He got up, dusting off the seat of his pants. “I’ll hurry back down.”_

_He found Rinoa sitting on a fur by the fire, her hand wrapped with a piece of white linen._

_“You okay?”_

_She nodded. “It was silly. The knife slipped.” The fire made it seem like a yellow glow was flickering in her eyes. “Then one of those cute moombas came in and helped me bandage it. I think a little blood must have gotten on its paws, cause I saw it lean down and start to groom itself. Then, suddenly, it squeaked ‘Laguna!’ and ran out.”_

_“Right to me! He seemed a little bit confused, though.” Squall sat down next to her._

_“Hmm?” She looked up at him, curious._

_“Oh, it said something else besides Laguna. But it wasn’t your name, or anyone we know.” He concentrated. The name sounded_ so _familiar. He knew he’d heard it before; he just couldn’t remember._

_“What was it?”_

 ·

At the time, her question had sounded like innocent curiosity. But, in retrospect, it seemed like a calculated response. Suspicion and a bit of fear, candy-coated.

_Even then, had she been taken over? Was she already hiding things, because she was no longer herself?_

“Squall! Mr. Commander!” Laguna was waving in his direction.

With a sigh, he headed over to the box. “I should really board now.”

“We just want to say good luck,” Kiros said. Ward, who was beside him, nodded.

“I said my goodbye to Elle earlier.” Laguna stood up, unshed tears in his eyes. “I know the two of you have to do this, but…”

“It’ll be okay,” Squall interrupted.

“…no. You are _not_ going to avoid this, not again.” His voice became firm. “I should be able to say goodbye to you as my son. You may want to deny me, but no longer.” Jumping around the table, he put an arm around Squall and shook his hand.

A photographer jumped out from the crowd, approaching them.

Laguna nodded assent. “Take a picture of me and the commander, my _son_. He’s about to board.”

“Your son, sir?” The man was astonished, but began to take a multitude of pictures. “This is going to make the front page.”

He turned to sit back down. “You’re an adult now; you were one, just about, when I met you. I’m sorry for the past, but…if both of us get to have a future, we are going to share parts of it. Deal with it. And good luck.”

Squall did not move for a moment; he was torn between disgust and admiration. _He completely ignored what I wanted, but it takes balls to bridge emotional gaps._ He nodded. “I’ll look on the bright side,” he said, walking towards the ship. “I might not come back.”

“You better damn well come back,” Laguna called after him, “Elle’s with you, and I actually like _her_!”

At the door to the Ragnarok, he turned and bowed to the crowd, which went wild with cheers. Just before he was completely inside, the door sealed behind him, he gave his father a precious gift--a genuine smile.

* * *

“Ah, Diablos, I feel like I pulled a SeeD training all nighter.” Irvine sat up, rubbing the back of his neck.

Squall blinked away the disorientation surrounding him. “Anyone awake enough to check if we’re on route?”

Quistis sprang up out of the stasis chamber and punched a few keys on the panel in front of them. “We’ve reached the outer limits of their solar system, and we’ll start deceleration in about a half hour.” She walked over to Rinoa. “The containment appears to have held. We shouldn’t need to wake her up until we’re in the orbit of the planet.”

“Just five more minutes, Irvy,” Selphie mumbled from the other side of the room.

“You’ve technically been asleep for years and years, babe,” he replied.

Zell hopped unsteadily to his feet. “Man, I am hungry. I’m gonna grab me some rations from next door.”

Irvine and a very groggy Selphie followed behind him.

·   


Squall turned back to Quistis when he heard her voice talking softly.

“Sis, are you doing okay?”

“Yeah…this just feels really weird. Let me have a minute to myself, okay?”

“Tell me if you start feeling worse, okay? I’m gonna grab a bite to eat.” Quistis walked out of the room herself, pausing to give Squall a friendly shoulder pat on her way out.

“Squall?” Ellone’s voice sounded very small.

Mustering up some energy, he swung himself onto his feet and walked over to her. “Yeah, Elle?”

She looked up at him, eyes wide. “Your friends aren’t afraid of anything, are they?”

“I’m still not sure myself. I’m torn between them either not having figured out that we’re millions of miles away from home right now, and everyone we know is dead…or…that after time compression, where if we forgot about each other for half a second, we’d go POOF out of existence…this is nothing.”

She mustered up a small smile. “I’m regretting my decision to help you all no matter what, but I have to say, at least what we’re doing now can’t make me go poof.” She slowly sat up and started to climb out of her chamber.

Squall grabbed her hand, helping her all the way up and out.

“Come on,” she said, “The sooner we do this, the sooner we can go back, I can use the machine, and we can go back home.”

* * *

Selphie pushed a few buttons, and the steering column sank down away from her. She slid her chair back, relaxing for a bit. “We’re in orbit. I’ve done all I know how to do!”

“Now for the hard part,” Quistis said, as she got up from her chair. “Let’s figure out where we’re supposed to go.”

Squall went with her back to the stasis room. He watched Quistis punch the buttons that would wake Rinoa up, then bring up a full topographical map of the planet below them. He looked down into the chamber, watching Rinoa’s body stir.

One side of her face had become a net of purple and black, similar to Edea and Ultimecia’s markings, yet larger. Her eyelids fluttered, then opened.

He was astonished to hear the sorceress’s voice almost immediately.

_“It feels like just yesterday that we were doing this, but I can see from the room, and your face, that it’s time to complete our deal.”_

He swallowed and nodded. _We need you to tell us where to go._

_“Fifteen degrees north…”_ She paused, obviously considering. _“Forty degrees west, relative to the face that is facing their sun right now.”_

Squall relayed this information to Quistis, and she rushed out to give Selphie landing directions. As he turned to follow her, the voice interrupted him again.

_“The bangle is still on me. You’ll be down upon them in less than ten minutes. If you want to see me out of this woman and into Hyne, you’d do well to release me now.”_

He realized that they had, indeed, forgotten to decide what to do with their possessed friend after landing on the planet. Completely forgotten that her reunion with Hyne would require her to actually be near Hyne.

The release button on her chamber glowed a bright cherry red as it flashed on and off.

_Forgive me, Rin, if I’ve simply fallen prey to manipulation_.

She gave him the kindness of not emerging until he was on his way down the corridor to the cockpit.

·   


The descent through the atmosphere was smoother than the last time; however, Selphie had always been and would always be a better pilot than Squall. They heard the snow crunch underneath their landing gear. They also saw the astonished face of the crowd of people they’d landed in front of.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded.

“Someone’s opened the cargo exit!” Quistis cried.

Squall heard Irvine gasp “Rinoa,” even as he ran down the hall. He heard the footsteps of his friends following him; up ahead he saw the dark hair and form of the one he loved so much. He tucked his head, willing himself to run faster.

_What have I done?_

He had almost reached her, as she made her way down the ramp into the snow. His arm flew out, fingertips brushing the ends of her hair, as she burst completely free.

Rinoa’s feet brushed the frozen ground, and she slid to her knees. Squall barely stopped, managing not to run completely over her. He saw her eyes widen, and her mouth open in surprise and fear. His eyes followed her gaze and landed on a woman with the stereotypical visual characteristics of every sorceress he’d ever seen.

Her power crackled through the air, and he realized that the fear of those in front of him did not have anything to do with the alien invasion, but everything to do with that woman. That cold, alien woman.

The silence was broken with one word. The voice was not that of a foreign, magical sorceress, but that of the woman he loved.

·   


_“Hyne.”_


	10. Tempus Morieris V

**  
**

V.

Squall found it difficult to drink in the scene before him. A woman with almond shaped eyes, black hair to her shoulders, bent over the form of an unconscious blond man. A man with olive skin and a shaved head holding a revolver, standing guard over them. Just behind him was a creature that could only be described as an overgrown moomba with a flaming tail.

Immediately before the horrifying sorceress was a man with long black hair and an enormous metallic claw, holding his other hand to his throat. The snow around him was stained with his blood. A glance in the other direction showed him a middle aged blond man chomping on a small burning stick, a dark haired man with a goatee, and an enormous dark-skinned man with what appeared to be a rocket launcher and machine gun combination grafted into one of his arms.

_What the hell kind of place_ is _this?_

The group’s glances of horror darted back between Rinoa and the other sorceress. Behind him, he heard his friends finally join him.

“Don’t worry,” Quistis whispered. “Sis stayed inside.”

·   


The alien sorceress took a few steps towards Rinoa, smiling at Squall’s threatening motions with his gunblade, like one would to encourage a small child pretending to be grown up. “This is a surprise.” Her look towards Rinoa was appraising. “You do not look like the Ancient. Tifa was _so sure_ that she was my missing half, and yet…”

Rinoa began to laugh. “All of this, and you don’t even remember? You scorned _us_ , you used _us_ , you still use _us_ , and in the end, you’re too senile to even understand your mistake.”

The other sneered, raising up an arm, casting what appeared to be a Flare spell directly at Rinoa. The spell, however, was directed completely into the Odine bangle, and it disappeared. “You tricked us, and you fled.” She smiled. “And I see that you could not control the people here, either. You tried so hard, and they nearly destroyed you.”

“I have destroyed many of them, and will destroy the rest, once we have joined!” The woman’s form was behaving strangely, as if it consisted of two layers. One was the form of the brunette woman; the other, a blueish purple form underneath. Its glimpses appeared slimy and nearly reptilian.

Rinoa rose to her feet, brushing the snow from her legs. “Not until you remember who and what you are. I want you to know who is subduing you.”

·   


“Is that the sorceress talking or Rinoa?” Quistis asked softly.

Squall swallowed. “I wish I knew.”

·   


The woman pursed her lips. “You have no right to demand, but I will be gracious. It is Jenova who will destroy this world, who will destroy your body, who will destroy all worlds, including yours.”

“You steal the tongues of ancient races you supposedly subdued; I can read within your skin that Jenn O’vah is simple ‘calamity from the skies.’ You flee mortals from one planet, to drop in the midst of them on another, and after thousands of years, you face the brink of destruction.”  


“Who are you to judge me? How…” The sorceress’s voice began to falter.

“There was a legend on our planet about a man who wrestled with god in the dark. That was just a legend; yet there was another legend. About a person who had power beyond belief but would not help the people she lived among. Finally, because of their pleading, she left behind a piece of herself to sate them. She ran like a coward, leaving them with her skin.

“Her skin was falseness and deception; the people divided it up, and it was subdued for a long time. But each piece sought after its whole, and the treachery returned. So while you were bullying children on another world, as a faceless--skinless--coward, I began to wrestle with an idol in the dark.” Rinoa smiled. “I’ve been locked up by this disgusting skin of yours…and even though my body has been in stasis, I’ve been fighting you for over a hundred years.”

Squall’s eyes widened in horror, and he turned to the others, who looked worse off than he did. _And I thought about locking her away forever. Trapping her alone with that…_ thing _…_ He felt like he was going to be sick.

“I’m done,” Rinoa whispered. Her voice turned to a growl. “And I _won_.” In one fluid motion, she ripped off the Odine bangle. The powdery snow at her feet began to spin around her, a whirlwind of energy was propelling her forward.

“No!” The other sorceress--Hyne--yelled.

“I am your greatest fear now.” She raised her arms in front of her, and they could see her energy in the air, warping their vision like heat rising off of black pavement. “Come out, you coward.”

She began to break in two, the hazy visions that they all had seen coming to fruition. The woman with waist-length dark hair and fair skin, on her hands in knees before them…and the glistening blue alien being pulled forth, yanked and stretched like a piece of rubber.

A new voice screamed, coming from the woman before them. “No! Oh no…papa…Cloud…” She began to shudder and thrash, looking frantically about her. The dark-haired man who had been sitting in his own blood reached forward, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

·   


Squall caught a glimpse of her face, distorted by insanity as it was: pale, creamy skin, and deep brown eyes.

Rinoa kicked the being in front of her. Jenova, Hyne, sucker of lives, parasite on the soul of the universe. She bend down over its half-formed ear. “I’d love to prevent your little reunion from ever occurring, but I’m sick of having your rancid castoffs inside of me.” She reached up, sliding her fingers along the side of her face, and began to tear…

Behind him, Selphie moaned and fell over in a faint, caught by Irvine just in time.

He fell to his knees, finding that he was heaving, despite himself. He tried to avert his eyes, but he saw the flesh-colored layer drop down on top of the quivering monster. _Oh god, oh god, Rin…_

But he heard her voice rising above the din. “Quistis…now!”

He looked up to see her face, her beautiful unmarred _face_. Smiling in triumph. Smiling like she had the first night at his induction ball, smiling like when she learned SeeD had been dispatched to the Forest Owls, smiling like that first night, as his lips trailed their way downwards from her collarbone…

·   


His mind forgot his reverie as he, and everyone around him, was enveloped in an explosion of bright, yellow light.

* * *

Two of the men, sterner and less squeamish than the others, carried the body of Hyne up into the Ragnarok. The containment chamber was to be set as high level as possible. Their names were Rude and Vincent.

The woman that Hyne had possessed was still babbling up a storm. The dark-skinned man, Barret, was trying his best to calm her down. The other woman reluctantly left her position near the unconscious man and walked up to the former sorceress. She touched her hand to a band on her arm, and she began to glow with the light tint of green. A wave of energy passed out of her, and the other woman began to sleep.

She turned to walk back to where she was, at the blond man's side, when Squall stopped her. “Do you know what’s wrong with him? The other guy seemed all bloody, but he was fine.”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “She had him for t-two m-months…” A tear rolled down her cheek. “She had him up in the mako, and if he’s breathing now, it’s just barely.”

He had no idea with “up in the mako” meant, but he definitely knew what “not breathing” meant. Quickly clearing his mind, he linked himself back to the power of Quezacotl…he’d drawn plenty of energy away from other life forms, enough to transfer Full-Life energy back to this man. Blue waves of light passed over the blond man’s body, and his chest began to rise and sink noticeably.

She cried in delight, hugging herself to her friend’s chest. “My materia didn’t do a thing…I was so afraid. What materia did you just use?”

Squall shrugged. “What’s a materia? I junctioned myself up with one of my Guardian Forces and…” His voice trailed off. She looked just as confused as he felt. _Okay, then. No brainer. Different worlds, different magics._ “I think mine worked because I came from the same world as…”

“I’m glad you did come,” she said. “I was afraid we were going to have to kill Tifa. Not that I didn’t kind of want to, at this point.”

“I wanted to seal Rinoa out in space,” he confided. “And I’m in love with her.”

“None of us got off easy, did we? Cloud wasn’t the possessed one, but the one she was obsessed with.” The man, Cloud apparently, began to stir. “Oh! I better look after him! Thank you…” Her voiced trailed off.

“Squall.”

She gave him a small smile. “I’m Yuffie. Nice to meetcha.”

·   


“Squall!” Ellone called him from the ramp of the Ragnarok. “We have a problem.”

Nodding to Yuffie, he made his way back over to the spaceship. “Don’t tell me we’re stuck here forever, Elle. Please.”

She blinked. “I don’t know if this is better or worse. It’s Hyne. The containment field is steadily rising to remain on par with her power. If it remains rising at the current rate, it will definitely break through the field on the way back to our world. It’s also rising slow enough to where we’d have to wait years ourselves just to see if it’ll even off or break our limit. We can’t bring Hyne back with us.”

“I hope you don’t think I’m eavesdropping.” The man with the claw and dark hair--Vincent--walked up to them. “Your world is very far away, I take it?”

Squall nodded.

“I’m not going to ask you how you got here, or how you’re getting back. Our technology is definitely behind yours. But we do have something to offer you. Let me introduce you to Reeve, Red, and Cid.”

* * *

Everyone had gathered inside the Ragnarok, as it was quite cold and blustery outside. On the bridge, Squall, Quistis, and Ellone, were having a meeting of the minds with Vincent, Reeve, Red XIII, and Cid.

Squall was astonished at the levels of wisdom and intelligence demonstrated by the creature they called Red XIII. This being had very little in common with a Moomba aside from fur color.

“We were extracting all of the Jenova cells from the people who’d been given treatments by this corporation called Shinra. We’d done this for nearly everyone on the Planet that they'd gotten ahold of. We know now that Tifa, under Jenova’s power, slew and took the Jenova cells from everyone else--those we hadn't reached in time, or those who chose to stay away from us. The only ones left, then, were Cloud and Vincent, who were used as pawns and bargaining chips, until just now, when she took their cells.”

“I was last. That was the cause of those pools of blood.” Vincent offered.  “Only luck--or Tifa's subconscious intervention--kept Cloud and myself alive.”

“So we come to the plan of what we intended to do with those cells,” Reeve explained. “Cid was a famous pilot, and several of us went up into space with him to try and destroy a meteor. It didn’t quite work, but that’s another story. Anyway, I hired some people and contracted them to help him build a new shuttle. We should be able to wire your containment chamber into it and finish off the ‘blast Jenova into space’ plan.”

“But...she would still eventually wake up,” Ellone said.

“It would be years and years from now, you said so yourself. Plus, we can shoot the thing off in the opposite direction of where you came from. You won’t ever see Jenova, Hyne, whatever, again. It’s the Ultimate End.”

Quistis was nodding. “It’s better than leaving her here, and a thousand times better than taking her with us.”

Squall was deep in thought. _Ultimate End…Ultimatend…Ulti…m…ecia._ He opened his mouth, about to burst out his theory, when he remembered something that Zell had said.

__

_“What’s the big deal, anyway? We already know that it falls into dangerous hands, but we also already know that we kicked the ass that those hands belonged to.”_

_That’s right. The worst thing that could come out of this is whatever’s already happened._ He chuckled to himself.

“What’s funny about this, Squall?” Quistis raised an eyebrow.

“Junction Machine Ellone. Shooting off the _Ulti_ mate form of Hyne into space…we just caused the last sorceress war.”

“ _Liberi Fatali_. And I used to think that Edea was crazy,” she said. “Creating entire schools to fight the sorceress. Training children to be cold-blooded killers. Knowing they would fight _her_.”

“She’s in the time loop, just like we are.” He glanced up, noticing that his friends from the new planet looked completely bewildered. “It would take too long to explain; all I’m gonna say is that when our chunk of Hyne tried to wreck our world, it was by trying to break time.”

* * *

Launch day was the next morning. Everything had gone according to plan. The body, inside the containment chamber, was laid within the main cockpit of the shuttle. Attached to main power. As long as the shuttle had power, it would be keeping up the containment field.

According to Reeve’s quick calculations, once the shuttle was propelled in the right direction, there would be enough energy to keep the containment field up for at least a hundred years. “I can’t control how long it will take for her to break it, but I can guarantee that she will be too far away to reach any of you guys while you’re still alive.”

·   


“But, sir, I still don’t understand why we’re shooting this off when the Jenova chamber was emptied.”

“I told you Shera, you idiot! That ugly-ass blue thing in the shuttle _is_ Jenova. And we are getting that thing the hell away from us!” Cid emerged from the shuttle after his assistant-slash-housekeeper, cursing up a storm, all while smoking a cigarette.

Squall sat on the lawn, Rinoa tucked under his arm. He reached up, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. “I still can’t believe this is real,” he whispered. “I don’t think it’ll be real ‘til we’re waking up in Esthar.”

“It’s too real.”

“Are you sure you’re _you_?” He brought his lips down to hers.

She nodded. “I’m me…but I’m not the same. It’s okay, though. I couldn’t be happier than I am now, sitting here with you.”

·   


“How is she?” an unfamiliar voice asked.  


Squall looked over and saw Yuffie wheeling the fragile-looking blond man--Cloud--around in a clunky wheelchair.

“Horrible, of course. If I put her to sleep any more, the materia’ll split. Sometimes she acts like it’s fifteen years ago, sometimes she remembers what she did in Corel, sometimes…”  As her voice trailed off, she shuddered.  


“Good,” Cloud said.

“You don’t mean that!”

“I do…” He looked down. “…I know she tried to ruin _both_ of our lives, but…after Jenova, and Sephiroth…it was a million times worse having her in my head. Even if it was Jenova in the end--I _trusted_ her! She’s done nothing but horrible things since we were children…”

“This last bit wasn’t her, Cloud. Just like when you beat Aeris at the Temple of the Ancients, that wasn’t you.”

“…I still don’t want to be around her.”

·   


_Part of me wonders what exactly she did to them, but the other part of me is content with just knowing what she_ almost _did to us._ He held Rinoa tighter.

Suddenly there was a burst of flame and light, and the Neo26 burst forth from the launch-pad, taking the Calamity from the Skies away from this world forever.

_Farewell, Hyne._

_I’m so glad I already killed you._


	11. Circus Vitae I

~~Requiescat in Sanguinem~~   
~~Tempus Morieris~~   
_Circus Vitae_

I.

“Cloud!” She screamed, but it was no use. She couldn’t even hear herself over the crashing of rocks as the Northern Crater collapsed on itself. She leaned over even further…just a little bit more.

Suddenly he blinked, and it was like he finally _saw_ her.

She felt his hand wrap around her forearm tightly, and, bracing herself against a boulder, she managed to pull him up to the ledge. He fell in a heap over her. She smiled, brushing back one of those damn spikes away from his eyes.  It was over, everything was going to be okay, and she was losing herself in the blue-green glow of his eyes.  


Then the ledge collapsed.

She shrieked, but he’d grasped the cliff wall in one hand, and her in the other. _Is this…the end…?_ The others had escaped, but she’d stayed behind, hoping beyond hope…

Above them, the rope ladder from the Highwind unfurled. Cloud’s face brightened as he looked up and saw that Yuffie had tossed it down.

Tifa found herself scowling unconsciously and buried her face in Cloud’s chest to mask her expression. He very carefully transferred the two of them to the ladder. The Highwind began to pull up out of the crater, even as they scrambled upwards onto the deck.

Then the world went upside down. The airship was turned nearly ninety degrees upwards, and they all were holding on for dear life. Only by the pilot’s skill and the grace of the Planet did they manage to get out and away from that horrid place.

·  


As soon as the Highwind was level again, Yuffie was hanging over the rail, losing the contents of her stomach.

_I thought she got rid of everything on the way_ in _._ Tifa’s thoughts were spiteful, and they turned even nastier when she saw Cloud walk over to her.

He put one hand on her shoulder, the other on the small of her back, and he whispered quietly in her ear.

Tifa grimaced. _If only this was like in Mideel. I wish I could see into his head, know what he was thinking…_ It was like a switch came on in her head, as she concentrated on him.

_“Oh honey, get it all out. I know how it feels. When you’re done, if we live through all of this, I’ll take you out on choco-back and avoid all of this nastiness.”_

Her eyes narrowed. _Okay, I know I’m jealous, but now I’m just losing it. …no I’m not._ Some strange surety told her inside that this was real…

Yuffie had finished her disgusting retching, and Cloud had her held up against him now. _“This feels nice…I’ll have to tell you how sorry I am that I’ve been not paying attention since Mideel…concentrating on Sephiroth.”_ His train of though paused for a moment, and then it dropped the bombshell. _“I wish you had stayed with me last night…I would have made up for that kiss at the Saucer, at least…”_

Tears slowly making their way from her eyes and down her cheeks, Tifa turned away from Cloud--that bastard--and towards the distant skyline of Midgar. She watched as Meteor managed to come ever closer.  She watched as some glowing force that had to be Holy _helped_ destroy the city.

_Figures._

She started to sob.

* * *

_Tifa walked quietly to the bathroom on the Highwind. She heard Cid’s voice carrying out from the meeting room._

_“I still say that we ain’t gonna find the guy. If he’s still alive, he’s either been taken by the Shinra or Sephiroth. Sephiroth’s got that glowy blue thing we can't get through, and the Shinra are gonna blast our brains out soon as they see us!  There's no way in hell to even get to 'im.”_

_“Shit, I know that,” Barret replied. “But Cloud’s disappearance has gotten everyone shook up. Even Yuffie’s been actin’ weird. Weird for_ her _, anyway.”_

_“What about Tifa, though? I just don’t get it.”_

_He was quiet for a moment. “I ain’t got no idea ‘bout that, you know? She been gettin’ weirder and weirder ever since she found him laid up at the train station months ago. Strong ninja goddess or somethin’ gone fool crazy over this psycho. From strong to wimp in no time flat, and she think that no one ever seen it. Fawned all over him, tells me he got to all these high ranks in SOLDIER, like he’s the only son of a bitch that Shinra ever hired to kill folk.”_

_“Fuck, man, so she’s fixated? While we can’t keep going on like this.” She heard the flick of a lighter. “Just searching?” Cid chuckled. “So, anyways, I told the pilot our next destination, since we haven’t hit_ shit _looking for Cloud’s ass.”_

_“Where that be?”_

_“You know Costa Del Sol? Beach paradise hoopla? Well, in my stint flying planes, I found the spot that all the rich folk who hate people go to. Island paradise. El tropico.”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“It’s called Mideel. I figure we gotta look fucking everywhere, right? Let’s at least go somewhere that doesn’t suck, and we’re not likely to get ourselves killed.”_

_“Shit,” said Barret, “amen to that.”_

· _  
_

_Tifa almost couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Sure, Cid she didn’t know too well, but Barret had been a support for her. Like a combination of big brother and father. Her head and stomach dancing, she finally forced herself to slip away from her eavesdropping and into the bathroom._

_She felt herself sink slowly down to a sitting position on the toilet; she felt the tears escape from the corners of her eyes, leaving trails down her cheeks. She didn’t brush them away._ I’ve fought for them. I would have died for them. I was put into a damn gas chamber for following the path that Barret set for AVALANCHE, and he mocks the fact I actually care about another human being?

__

_Slowly, the two men’s voices became audible to her again, as they passed by the door of the restroom._

_“How exactly did you hire the spaz, again?” Cid asked._

_“Well, it’s like when Tifa found him, some sort of obsessing switch got flipped over in her head. ‘Cloud this, Cloud that, when we was kids-blahblahblah…’ You know, it really weirded me out, cause she ain’t never mentioned this dude’s name before. Plenty of others, if you know what I mean…”_

_They died off as the two went further down the corridor._

· _  
_

Why did I never mention him to Barret before then? _She was startled to hear a response within her own head._

_“Just because the last time you saw him was so horrible, that’s all. No one could say that was weird.”_

_Her brow furrowed._ Oh, that’s right. But what was so horrible about it, I don’t…was it…Nibelheim?

_“Why bother yourself thinking about bad times, just because the people you thought were friends don’t respect you?”_

But if I remember, I could find Cloud! Or help him once I do…he seemed so lost.

_“You’ve been helping him get his memory back since you found him in Midgar. You can help him more. It will be soon, I promise. Just leave them behind and go to him.”_

_She smiled._ That would be nice. Wait! But we’re on a mission to destroy Sephiroth and prevent Meteor, I can’t abandon that.

_“Shinra was behind both Cloud and Sephiroth. Cloud is more important, and you’re the only one who can deliver him.”_

…when?

_“Soon.”_

_Tifa leaned back, took a few deep breaths, and then tore off some toilet tissue and wiped her eyes. Rising, she rinsed her face in the sink. Peering at her face, she noticed that she now had a visible vein, ever so thin and spidery, at her temple. She frowned for a second, before she realized her depressed state might have caused the premature aging._

_Stepping outside, she firmly closed the door behind her and made her way up to the bridge._ I’m going to find Cloud soon, and I know it.

_  
_

Soon she was so engrossed in putting up a fake brave face to her comrades, she’d forgotten entirely about the mysterious voice in the bathroom.

* * *

Kalm was full of refugees from Midgar. All around seemed paranoid and scared. Panicked eyes peered from behind the slivers of closed shades as they all made their way into the central square.

Barret and Vincent, blindly leading the company, had paused. Tifa turned back herself, waiting as Cloud made his way up to front and center. She smiled at him before she turned and glared at Yuffie. _I saw that “innocent” hand squeeze._

The younger girl shrank back with a wounded face.

Windows of all the nearby houses slowly cracked open, anticipating whatever event was about to unfold. Cloud closed his eyes a moment, gearing up for the public speaking event of a lifetime. “People of Kalm, Midgar! Visitors from afar!” His voice rose steadily into the night, clear and strong over the hushed silence of the village.

“You all saw the Meteor falling closer! Not all of you know that the once glorious hero, head general of the Wutai war summoned it. Yes! Sephiroth had vanished for five long years, but he returned a madman bent on destroying the Planet for more power.”

He smiled. “But his plan failed. We have defeated him, and the black materia has been destroyed! You saw the flash in the skies, you saw Meteor disappear, and I am here to tell you that evil has gone forever!”

·  


“Three cheers for AVALANCHE!” A voice came from a side street, as a man in his mid-20s stepped out among them. Dark hair, dark eyes, goatee. “AVALANCHE gave me the information to begin the evacuation!” Reeve pumped his fist into the air.

The fear broke; the eeriness ended. All at once, Cloud and Reeve were shaking hands and throwing their arms about each other.

“Papa!” Marlene came running out, trailed very closely by Elmyra. Doors opened and people began to stream out into the town square the moment she was tossed up onto Barret’s shoulder.

“I have to admit, you guys don’t all suck.” Reno came up to them, followed by Rude and Elena. “It was a smart move, not fighting us in the end. We were full strength to help Reeve get out all the people we could.”

Vincent was talking to Elena, Cid immediately accosted Reno for cigarettes (having smoked all of his in a chain when he thought the world was ending), and Tifa was startled at a quiet voice behind her.

“Hello.”

She turned to see the trademark shades of Rude. “Sunglasses at night?”

He flashed a crooked smile before pulling them off, slowly. “The Lifestream hitting Meteor thing was pretty bright. I’m probably one of the few people who didn’t look away.”

“It was so scary there, up close.”

The pause was so extended, she almost turned away and looked for someone else to talk to, but he had gotten his nerve up. “I was thinking about you, you know. Hoping that you would get out of there okay.”

“Really?” Tifa felt her face getting warmer, and she smiled. “Thanks.”

A bottle of damn good whiskey was being passed around and had reached them. Rude took a swig before offering it to her. “This is too good for anyone to pass up. Once in a lifetime booze.”

“I recognize the label, you know,” she said, before taking a drink herself. “I was a bartender by night, and an extremist by…more of the night.”  She giggled at that, the heat from the liquor already starting to go to her head.  


“I know. You probably don’t remember, but before things got real tight up at Headquarters, forbidding under-plate in off hours, I stopped in your place a few times.”

·  


A chorus of loud voices interrupted their conversation.

“Toast to Cloud Strife!” Reno called loudly and drunkenly above the crowd. The cheering could have been heard in Junon.

“To Cloud!” Reeve chimed in.

Cloud looked around him. “It wasn’t just--”

“Cloud! Cloud! Cloud” Everyone chanted, getting into it. Tifa smiled at Rude; they’d both joined in themselves.  After all, teammates or not, he'd led them down into the Northern Crater.  He'd faced Sephiroth alone.  


One of the circulating bottles of booze was passed into his hand, and he took a good long drink, resulting in more cheers.

Tifa’s body began to feel tingly all over, and warmth was spreading out from her middle. Rude reached over cautiously, laying a hand on the small of her back. Her eyes were still on Cloud, so she was able to watch him completely.

Every second etched into her brain, as she saw him twirl Yuffie around as they both laughed, sobriety long forgotten. Pretending long forgotten.

Rude opened his mouth to say something to her, but his words were lost in the din that erupted as Cloud pulled Yuffie close to him for a long kiss.

Tifa shrank away from Rude’s words, his touch, running away from him into the night.

·  


·  


She blinked her eyes open. _Where am I?_ The disorientation passed as she remembered the generous free lodging at the Kalm Inn. Despite the overcrowding due to the disaster, everyone was glad to give up space so that the “heroes who had saved the Planet” could have a bed, at least. Her bed was in a tiny room with barely any room to stash an extra bag, let alone any of the things she generally saw in an inn.

Tifa swung herself over the bed. It was still dark, but the sky outside had turned the shade of gray it normally did as it expected the sunrise. She estimated it was about 4 o’clock in the morning. _So I got two hours of sleep…ugh._

Suddenly, she was possessed by an urge that most would have dismissed as irrational. Quietly, so as not to accidentally wake or disturb anyone else, she slid open the door and walked out into the corridor. As she passed the doors to various rooms, she would slow and listen quietly. Behind one, she was fairly certain she heard a girl crying. _Did he sober up?_

She smirked, despite herself.

Then, four rooms down from there, she found what she was looking for. No sound could be heard behind the closed door, and there were no signs of life behind it. It was as if some invisible force within her had said, “He’s inside.”

It was locked, but her days in AVALANCHE had not been for nothing. Breaking and entering were par for the course, as was stealth. Pulling off one of her earrings, she bent the wire on the setting until it was straight, then inserted it, silently slipping all of the tumblers into place.

The knob turned easily and smoothly.

Inside, sprawled on top of the lovely handmade quilt, Cloud slept where he’d flung himself. He appeared to be sleeping peacefully, but the expression on his face was less than pleasant.

_What’s wrong, Cloud?_ Tifa’s brow furrowed. They had just saved the Planet, how could he possibly be so unhappy it carried over into unconsciousness? She gazed at his face. _Let me help make it better_ , she thought to herself.

She moved in closer and lost control. One of her hands reached forward, stroking the side of his face. Suddenly, she was slammed with sights and sounds pouring into her head.

 ·

_Cloud and Yuffie outside the door in which she had heard the crying._

_He leaned in, but she turned her face, and his lips brushed her cheek._

_She frowned._

_“What is it?” He pulled her closer._

_“You’re drunk,” she said coldly._

_He laughed. “So are you, silly!”_

_Gently prying him off of her, she leaned away from him, crossing her arms. “I only got in on the first pass of the booze, thanks.”_

_“Ah,” Cloud whispered, “you’re mad cause you sobered up!”_

_“I’m not mad…just…I don’t understand it, Cloud. A little bit more than twenty-four hours ago, you’re shakin’ your head at me through the bridge door, then talkin’ shit in front of everyone…”_

_“You didn’t push me away in front of everyone in the square…” He put his hands on her hips, pulling her closer._

_Yuffie sighed. “I just…gawd, I’m gonna regret this, but if you really want this--_ me _, it can wait until you’re not drunk, right?”_

_“But we waited for so long…”_

_“And I was never, ever sure, if I meant anythin’ or if you were just emotionally retarded! Geez!”_

_His hands dropped, and his face fell. “I’m sorry I’m all screwed up. I just…the only girl I ever thought about like this was Tifa, since I was small…and she…I still don’t know what’s the truth and what’s the lies. Add in the fact that she’s been acting weirder and weirder lately, especially since I came out of Mako poisoning…”_

_“She was all starin’ and glare-y tonight. I‘d rather wait until we could be somewhere she couldn’t do that.”_

_“I was sticking you to the side for so long, trying to figure out my past, figure out what didn’t add up, figure out_ her _…I just want to stop.”_

_“I can wait a little longer, ‘til we can get away. ‘Til we can answer just to us.” Yuffie reached up, brushing a droopy spike of hair away from his eyes. “Can we let that be the first nice thing you do for me?”_

_“First?!”_

_“…you’ve been a fucking jerk,” she replied candidly._

_An eyeroll. “Really?”_

_“For sure.”_

_“Can I do a second, for goodnight?” Cloud’s face was a picture of pouty pleading._

_“You’re still drunk!” More pouting. “Fine,” she assented. “Five second time limit.” But she was smiling when he pulled away._

_“Tomorrow will be a new start, I promise.” Reluctantly, he again removed his arms from around her._

_“Goodnight, Cloud.” Then Yuffie had the door shut behind her._

Wow, _Cloud thought to himself,_ I wonder if this could be it…

 ·

Never doubting the vision for a second, it kept all of Tifa’s training and restraint to keep herself from punching a hole in the wall. _It will never_ work _if she gets to him. This will not happen!_ her inner voice snarled.

“…wha?” Cloud’s response was not mental, but verbal.

Tifa’s mind was a haze of anger, sadness, confusion, and arguing trains of thought.

_  
_

·  


Who cares? He’s happy, at least!

“I need to be with him, or else it won’t work!”

What won’t work?

“He’s so important…if I could just get to him, I wouldn’t need to stay here…”

…I could go anywhere I wanted, he’s got nothing to do with it.

“You searched for so long, stayed by his side, only to let him go in the end? He can’t possibly care about her the way he cares for you…”

He did fulfill his promise, didn’t he?

“Despite all the danger. Even though you didn’t know what was going on, he saved you. He was hiding in that suit of armor, hiding in wait for the moment you needed him.”

·  


…yeah! He wouldn’t ever do that for her, he’s just looking for an easy target because I wasn’t there enough for him.

“…and guess who’s hiding in wait, for the moment Cloud needs someone to save him from himself?”

 ·

She smiled. _I can help you, Cloud. Yuffie’s right…you’re just getting carried away with the moment, here and now._ Looking down, she noticed that she’d not only fallen asleep in her clothes, but in her armor as well.

A yellow orb was glowing in her Mystile. Tifa nodded to herself.

·   


Cloud awoke without waking. Walking to the desk in his room without seeing, and taking out pen and paper, he wrote without knowing. As Tifa laid herself down onto his bed, she watched as he blindly lifted his pack.

Her mind’s eye reported back to her as he slipped the note under Yuffie’s door, hefted his gear onto his shoulder, and made his way over to Chocobo Joe’s. By the time Yuffie awoke, Cloud was boarding a ferry in Junon, and Tifa was finally getting some much needed rest.

In Cloud’s bed at the inn. Naked.


	12. Circus Vitae II

II.

Home.

Some of the cobblestones wobbled under her feet, and the well was already starting to look as if it was in disrepair. There was an odd quiet to the place; the Shinra employees had fled the town around the time Meteor seemed to be impending certain doom.

A sound was floating on the air, though, and it became clearer as Tifa made her way into the central square. _Piano_. She smiled to herself. _So that’s where he is._ She became quite excited and half-ran to what appeared to be her old house. She swung open the door and bounced up the stairs.

The playing had stopped the instant she had opened the front door, and she was met by a familiar face as soon as she entered her bedroom. “Cloud,” she said with a grin, “At last.”

There were dark circles under his eyes and a few days worth of stubble growth on his face. “Why are you here?”

She frowned at the dull sound in his voice. “I don’t know, you run away the day after the celebration party and make yourself scarce for six months. Everyone worried at first, but eventually went off to do their own thing. I never forgot, though.”

“How could you forget? It was your fault.” He fiddled with the chain attached to his belt.

Her face was the perfect picture of shock. “My…how could you say such a thing? I was worried sick!”

“Only because you stopped being able to control my every move!” He stepped closer, chest rising and falling with his angry breathing. “So why don’t you stop lying and admit that you freaked the fuck out five months ago when I broke off your manipulate spell?”

“Why the hell would you accuse me of such a thing? Is Jenova trying to do something with you?” Her voice was sweet, but overkill, like honeyed sugar cubes topped with frosting. “I’ll help you--”

“You think I wouldn’t notice you were in my head? I thought I was going crazy after the crater for a second there…but I woke up to see you use that…” Suddenly, the room flashed green.

Tifa would have fallen to her knees in agony, if she wasn’t also petrified. She wasn’t familiar with the effects of a Break spell. Tears welled up in her eyes and turned crystalline before they could fall.

“I _hope_ I fuck this part up,” Cloud declared before bringing the hilt of his sword down on her armlet. Hard.

However his aim was true, and the manipulate materia shattered along with outer pieces of the Mystile. _Please, I was only trying to help!_ She tried to shout the thought, hoping that maybe, somehow, he could hear…

“Stay out of my head!” He lifted his sword, preparing to shatter her entirely, but her scream of terror echoed throughout his skull. The Ultima Weapon clattered to the floor, as he brought his hands up to his ears, uselessly, in response to the pain.

She noticed that she still existed, and the panic began to dissipate. _Can we please just talk about this?_

“I trusted you,” he said. “It was stupid, but I did. But you’re just like everyone else I’d trusted. You lied. Even when you were in my head the first time, you lied. You still wanted to act like we were these perfect friends. Still wanted to believe that I had saved you like a big hero in the reactor…your way, not reality. I confronted you, and you barely said anything. So obsessed, caring so much, but doing everything to undermine me, my sanity…

“And you then try to up it to the next level, expecting me to just take it? Maybe it worked before, more than once. But you were there. You saw me break free. Yet you think me so _stupid_ to fall for it again? You think so little of me that you want to turn me back into your little Cloud. Like I’m a pet, instead of a man. Doing everything you wanted, like right after you found me in Midgar.”

_I just wanted to make you better…my friend…you weren’t a failure, you were the best…_

“Why would you, Tifa of Nibelheim, talk to me about being a failure?” His eyes bored in to her unblinking ones. “What dark secrets do _you_ have repressed and rewritten? Why are you so afraid of me remembering? So against me being happy? You never wanted much to do with me, why can’t I be with--” He shook his head. “This ends _now_. You have no power over me.” He pulled out a pendant holding a materia orb, green and glowing.

_What are you going to do now, cast death on me? When I stood by your side…what is wrong with…you wouldn’t dare…murder…monster…puppet…_ Her thoughts died down to incoherency.

“I prayed. Maybe only Aeris could talk to the Planet. But I got her materia back to see if I could talk to Aeris. I haven’t blocked you out yet, because I wanted to see…if there was a mistake…but I was too hopeful. You will not be inside again.”

Tifa shouted everything she could mentally, searched as deep as she could, but he was right. She was cut off. _This is all a mistake, Cloud…I didn’t even want to…but…she…_

“You won’t see me again.” Cloud grabbed the coverlet off of the replica of Tifa’s bed and draped it over her form.

Panic didn’t hit her until well after she heard his footsteps go down the stairs and well out of the town square.

* * *

_It was deathly quiet, but that was to be expected for ruins. Cloud had woken up in the middle of the night with some sort of visions. Not only that, but he insisted that everyone follow him to see if his hunch was right._

_Tifa yawned, barely registering the conversation that Cloud and Yuffie were having up ahead._ …Yuffie. _She frowned to herself. They were spending an awful lot of time together. The “date” at the Gold Saucer had seemed innocent enough and, according to Yuffie herself, had been quite the disaster. But still, Yuffie and Aeris were Cloud’s only companions into the Temple of the Ancients. He was traveling with three women, and, yet, he’d left the most accomplished fighter of them behind when chasing Sephiroth._

_She was beginning to wonder if the only reason she ever went someplace with Cloud was because everyone_ else _was going, too._

What the hell are they up to? _She was bewildered to see them walking into a house that they had searched top to bottom six hours ago, at the latest. Paused, head cocked in confusion, she was being passed up by her other companions._

_“C’mon Teef.” Barret tapped her shoulder. “I don’ know what stupidity’s goin’ on in his brain, but you shouldn’t be stayin’ out here by yourself.”_

_She walked in to see that where a large image of a fish had once stood, there was a doorway which led to a crystal staircase._ …insane.

_Cloud and Yuffie were beginning to descend, followed closely by everyone else. Tifa fell into file at the end. Some sort of mysterious force was afoot in the Ancient Village…whether for good or for ill._

· _  
_

_Yuffie’s gasp was good and loud at the bottom of the stairway, but she had an actual reason, for once. On a raised platform of some clear blue rock or crystal, their vanished friend sat plain as day. Kneeling, with her hands clasped together in some silent prayer. Tifa felt her feet pause when she hit the floor._ Has she been here this whole time? Why couldn’t she just have explained? We could have let her be in here and just stood guard in the village.

_Cloud slowly made his way across the water flowing around Aeris’ platform. Each step forward was awkward, like he was fighting some sort of invisible barriers. Tifa cautiously made her way closer, picking her way between her companions, trying not to raise notice._

_He paused and held his head for a moment, like when he’d had his attacks back in the Midgar mako reactors._ Be all right… _He drew his sword, and she looked around._ There’s nothing to attack…why’d he…

_Suddenly he raised his sword high above him, and the only thing for him to swing down on would be Aeris. Tifa’s heart leapt into her throat._

_“Not again,” she heard Yuffie cry. “Cloud!” Her voice had risen to a yell. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”_

_The sound broke Cloud out of his attack, and Aeris out of her prayer. Slowly, carefully, he lowered his sword and sheathed it. “Sorry,” he whispered._

_Tifa was still looking at Yuffie._ Not again? When on the Planet has he done this before? And why didn’t you tell anyone?!

_Aeris looked up at him, smiling._

· _  
_

_Quicker than most could see, a form fell down quickly from the ceiling. Tifa’s eyes were well-trained, but could still only catch a few glimpses mid-air. Black cape, long silver hair, a thin, long sword._

_“Seph…” The name was on her lips, even as the masamune cut through their friend. Aeris looked down, staring at the blade exiting through her own midsection. Sephiroth yanked out his sword with more strength than concern, smirking at all of them. Her body pitched forward, right into Cloud’s arms._

_Tifa blinked back hot tears, barely able to believe the scene in front of her. Even though she’d seen people she cared about die, this was different…this was in front of her face…this was… She barely heard or saw Cloud screaming at Sephiroth, or the return taunting._

_However, she did notice the form of Jenova that suddenly rose in front of them, giving Sephiroth a chance to escape. Cloud carefully laid Aeris down and drew his sword, Yuffie running up quickly to aid him._

Aeris… _Tifa did not hesitate to run up herself, fear of being underappreciated forgotten for a moment._

· _  
_

_The pain had made the battle more difficult, but had also leant intensity to their actions. The fight against the form of Jenova had been brutal and swift. Even as the alien body dissolved into nothingness, she heard Cloud…shouting at it._

_“I am_ not _a puppet!”_

_She moved to comfort him, help him with this problem, but paused. Aeris was still laying there, perfectly still. She would never cheer them up, tell them weird stories about the Turks, talk to the Planet…_

_Cloud met her eyes over the body of their friend. He looked just as sad as she felt. New tears glittered in her eyes. He started to move towards her._

_The moment was interrupted by a loud sob to her left. Yuffie’s shoulders hitched up and down. “Oh gawd…” She fell down to her knees._

_And Cloud turned to_ her _. “Hey…” He knelt down and slid an arm around her shoulders._

_She buried her face in his shoulder. “Aeris was th-the only one who was ever_ nice _to me! Only one who gave a damn…” Her sobs continued, near-hysterically._

_He reached over, stroking her hair. “Shh…don’t say that…I’m glad she was nice, but don’t ever say that.”_

· _  
_

_Tifa slowly backed away, her_ silent _tears still unshed. Ignoring the looks and reactions of her friends and their mourning, she began to run back up the crystal staircase, taking the steps two at a time._

I just need some air, _she said to herself._

“You just needed to get the hell away from the little girl’s hysterical grandstanding,” _an inner voice replied._

* * *

Her tears were freezing to her face. _I have to stop this, or…_ She winced as she pulled the tiny bit of ice from her cheek. _…I’ll have to admit he won. Have to admit that I let him get to me._

_“I was only trying to save him. I bet he ran straight off to that little slut.”_

She paused for a moment, feet sinking into the snow. _Oh come on, I’ve never seen anything to indicate that she’s a slut._

_“She threw herself at him, didn’t she?”_

Tifa quieted her now-normal chain of mental conversation and continued her trek through the mountains. Normally, petrification wore off in an hour or so, but Cloud had done something to amplify his spell. She was stuck, blinded by the covering, for nearly a week. She winced to remember her savage attack on the kitchen afterwards, eating every bit of food in sight, as long as it contained preservatives.

After resting for two days, regaining her strength and her health, she set off in the first direction that seemed _right_. She decided to pay a visit to the reactor that had changed her life, Cloud’s life, Nibelheim’s life. She had no idea what she would find there; most of the answers and lab notes were still in the mansion down in the village. However, things had been _made_ in the reactor. She still wasn’t sure she trusted Cloud’s hazy memories or Hojo’s insane assertions.

Finally, she came to the top of Mt. Nibel. Ahead of her was the old, dead reactor. Somehow in the impending apocalypse, Shinra must have decided that even supplying power to their fake town wasn’t worth it anymore. It looked like no one had been inside since…AVALANCHE themselves. Tifa took a deep breath, climbed the stairs, and walked inside.

As she walked down the main corridor, she was surprised to find that she was not going to need the flashlight she’d brought along. Even though the place seemed powered down, yellow emergency lights were adding a glow to the place. Eerie, maybe, but they still did the job of making the dark hallway visible.

She made her way further inside, finally pausing at the platform preceding the reactor’s core. A pang struck her, and she could see the image of her father’s body, almost perfectly. For a moment, the chaos inside her head quieted down, and she could think for herself.

_Papa, why did you ever come up here? You weren’t a fighter. You didn’t understand what was going on with Sephiroth or the Shinra soldiers. All you did was get yourself killed and lead me to…to…_

She shook her head and walked into the reactor core. And was surprised to discover that she was not alone.

·   


“Hello.” The man looked to be thirty or so, possibly younger. Between herself and Cloud, she’d begun to see that stress and pain could age the body like nothing else.

“Uh, hi,” she replied cautiously.

“This looks weird, doesn’t it?” He raised a hand, smoothing back his black hair.

She nodded, then put forward a small smile. “I’m sure anyone being here looks weird, so I’m a weirdo, too.”

“You seemed a bit more familiar with this place. Like you were supposed to be here.” He sighed. “I’m just trying to solve an old, old mystery.”

“Mystery, huh?” Tifa looked at him with a hint of suspicion. _What mystery would that be? Mysteries are a dime-a-dozen in Nibelheim._

“My brother was in SOLDIER. So was I, I joined up after him, always copied my big bro. But he had the…‘luck,’ you could say, of going MIA. I never mimicked that. He was sent on a mission with the _great_ Sephiroth. Near here. I know this, because he wrote me a letter talking about it. Mail within SOLDIER isn’t scrutinized as much as mail going to civilians. However, Sephiroth disappeared on that mission, along with my brother. All traces of my brother.”

Tifa’s breath caught.

“It’s like Zack never existed, at least to Shinra. I’m sure everyone he was with died or were executed in some fashion, but I would like to know the truth. My parents have gone completely batty. They ask everyone they can find about him, and no one knows what they’re talking about. Sometimes I think the reactor incident in Gonzaga was an attempt to take them out, to finally destroy the last trace that proved he ever lived.”

“I lived in that village down the mountain,” said Tifa softly. “It’s weird. The whole place was destroyed over five years ago, in the aftermath of that mission. As far as I know, I’m one of two people who survive and remember the old town. Even the others who’d left home, I eventually lost track of. It’s like they were disposed of the first time they went home to visit.”

“You were there? You might remember my brother…” He stared at her with disbelief, a smile crossing his features.

“ _This is just a sidetrack. Tell the guy his brother was shot outside Midgar and get on with your own business.”_

_It’s a nice guy. A good looking nice guy. I would like some attention…and it would be fun to eventually wave this guy in certain people’s faces. An actual SOLDIER who isn’t…_

_“…isn’t a failure?”_

_Yeah!_

_“…you’ve got a point. He may be useful, after all.”_

· _  
_

Tifa smiled back. “While the town down there is fake, there’s a bit of edible food, and some comfortable chairs. I know how to build a fire in the quirky fireplace in the mock-up of my old house. We can have dinner, and I can tell you everything I know.”

“This is amazing! Luck, or fate, is smiling on us tonight. You can tell the truth, and I can finally get my answers… Thank you.”

Tifa leaned forward, playfully grabbing his arm, and led him back out of the door. With just his warm skin against hers, she could feel the power within him. He had not been lying about his SOLDIER membership. There was mako in his veins. And Jenova.

“No, thank _you_.”


	13. Circus Vitae III

III.

She jumped as a crash of thunder boomed louder than the bombs AVALANCHE had set in Midgar. The entire scene in front of her was illuminated as bright as daylight for a fraction of a second, then she was back in the heart of the dark storm. She shivered; she had been walking for quite some time, and she was soaked to the bone.

Leather pants and a white t-shirt weren’t exactly wear for wet weather. Between her clothes and the look of exhaustion on her face, she knew that she looked like a pitiful, bedraggled, piece of trash. _With just a hint of indecency_ , she thought, looking down at her nearly see-through shirt. _Perfect_.

She paused in front of the small house, an obvious bachelor pad. There couldn’t have been room for more than three or four rooms in the small building. Another crash of thunder. She reached up her hand and pounded on the door, hoping to be heard over the storm.

A light came on inside.

_Did I wake him? It’s not that late._

She saw a figure moving inside, towards the door. Slowly it opened. Rude stared at her for a few moments, confused. “…Tifa?”

“Can I come in? It’s a bit…wet…out here.”

“Sure!” He waved her inside, and she stepped over the threshold, shivering despite herself. “What brings you to Corel?” He looked at her closely.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Actually grew up near here. My father was a coal miner. I’ll be more specific. Why are you on my doorstep, and not Barret’s, when I haven’t even seen you in--”

“Three years?” She smiled. “Well, actually, it’ll have been three years next month.”

“You kept that close track of it?” Rude’s face was the very definition of bewildered.

“I had some business that took me nearby, and I noticed that…you were here. I figured I’d stop by and say hello, but I got caught in the rain on the way. This isn’t normal weather for around here, is it?” She turned towards the window, as the rain continued to pelt against the house.

“No, it’s not. Did you say hello to Barret?”

She lowered her head, let her face take on the appearance of sadness. “He’s never gone to visit me, why would I visit him? On the other hand, you…” Tifa looked up to meet his eyes, her own so bright they almost glowed with energy. “I guess I was too embarrassed by how I acted that night to ever get up the nerve to apologize.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Apologize?”

She stretched absent-mindedly, pulling the translucent fabric of her shirt tighter against her skin. “You were being very nice to me, and I ran off because I was a stupid, jealous little girl. I know now it’s too late to try to go back to where we were then…you probably have your own life and family now…”

“Nah. Quite single. Does it look like anyone else lives here?” He gestured to his utilitarian living room. A couple pieces of pristine furniture, a television, and a half-eaten takeout box on the table.

She fought the urge to laugh. _Of course not. You’re too easy._ “I’ve thought about it a lot since then,” she whispered, stepping in closer to him.

“…w-what?” he stammered.

“What could have happened if I stayed there with you…” She reached up, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear, then letting her hand travel lower, “smoothing” her shirt over her chest. Watching his eyes follow her hand, then color spread over his face when he noticed that she’d caught him. “I know we can’t go back…but I’m still curious. I wish I knew what would have happened if I had let you do what you wanted.”

“I don’t know, Tifa. I liked you…that’s the only thing I knew for sure.”

“Could you…still? I’ve been all alone.”

She could almost _see_ the blood travel from his brain down to somewhere lower. Rude reached out, stroking her arm. “I find that hard to believe.”

Drawing herself in closer, she laid her hands along his sides, just above his hips. She felt his heat, felt his breaths coming and going harder. Her lips were barely apart from his. “Believe it.”

 

 

Tifa awoke to a pitch black room. She quietly extracted herself from the foreign arm thrown around her and carefully slid out from under the bedcovers. She stood, naked in the small bedroom, with the only source of light a tiny window in the opposite wall.

“ _Find your pants, the knife’s still in its holster.”_

She walked around the bed, finding her clothes in a pile on the other end. She grabbed the weapon, then tossed them even farther away, close to the door.

“ _Time to get more of what’s mine back from Shinra’s little sheep.”_

Tifa nodded, then leaned in closer to the person she’d woken up next to. Brandishing the knife, she prepared to do her usual cut-and-extract technique. Suddenly, she recognized the face of the man in front of her. _Rude?!_ She dropped the knife, and it clattered to the ground.

Rude stirred, rolling over and mumbling. But he remained asleep.

_“You useless little bitch! That would have made things very messy, had he woken up. I can’t keep things from being messy if you can’t do your job properly!”_

_…you said that we were going to help understand Cloud better._

_“Hasn’t this worked well all the other times?”_

Flashes popped up in her mind; men, who had been in SOLDIER. It was like watching herself from a third person perspective…she watched herself approaching them…fucking them…taking the knife and… “No,” she whispered. “This can’t be me.”

_“It is you. The real you…whenever this little wimp side of yours can be put to sleep for awhile. I’m surprised it woke up like it did.”_

_If it is me, I’m not ever going to do this again!_

_“Pick up the knife.”_

_NO!_

 

Tifa got up, scrambling for the door, reaching for her clothes. Suddenly a force from within rendered her motionless. She fought, struggling against this unknown paralysis. Every now and then, she did regain control and made it a bit closer to her goal.

_“Wait. You were complicit for so long. Why are you so scared? Fighting so hard?”_

_I don’t know, maybe the fact that you want me to_ knife _someone I know! Someone I…_ Her thoughts faded as she began to recall the earlier events of that evening. Acting like she never had, talking like she never had…being looked at like she never had…

_“I made a mistake. It wasn’t time. You weren’t ready. It’s good we did not attempt to find Cloud, yet. Think for a moment here. We’re freeing all of these poor people from the Jenova inside them. They will never be sick again, never be crazy like Cloud.”_

_B-but all that blood…_ Her thoughts were contradictory, but already the fighting spirit within her was beginning to die down.

_“It just seems bad, because the cells come from the blood. Come on, your memory is just acting weird again. Just continue with Rude.”_

_Continue?!_

_“He’ll be okay. Why would you do something harmful to your friend?”_

Tifa was both acting and watching. She felt her hands move on their own, yet could still feel herself controlling them. She sliced open a vein on Rude’s arm, and blood began to flow steadily out of him. She watched in amazement…the blood passed through her hands, and a glowing blue mass collected in them.

_“Now!”_

She concentrated hard, and the green orb in the knife began to glow. The Cure spell sealed the cut on his arm, even eliminated most of the spilled blood. Rude hadn’t even stirred. The blue mass began to seep into her, slowly, like thick liquid through a sieve. The world around her became fuzzier…

 

_That was very, very close._ Tifa outwardly winced as she quickly dressed herself. _The stronger the host, the stronger it will fight if you cross too many lines._

_I will keep you happy, Tifa. I can’t have you emerge to spoil my plans._

She let herself out the front door. The storm had ended, and the small puddles caused by the rain were beginning to give way to the dry dust of Corel. Putting herself back together was going to take forever, at this rate.

* * *

_“How do I look?” The younger girl twirled around, clad in an “I ♥ the Gold Saucer” shirt and a microscopic pair of jean shorts._

_Tifa looked up from her materia. She’d been sorting through it; she wanted a thorough list of what she owned before she’d sleep in the same room with Yuffie, after what happened in Wutai. She shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Kinda like a tourist.” She stuck out her tongue._

_“I want to look like I’m fun.” She swayed back and forth in front of the full-length mirror. She made a few punching motions, a nervous habit. “At least the shirt’s stretchy, huh?”_

_Aeris walked through the door. “You look cute!” she chirped. Glancing at Tifa nervously, she turned and whispered something in Yuffie’s ear._

_Leaning forward, she could make out a few of the words. “…lone now… …best chance…”_

_Yuffie frowned. “But what if…?”_

_“You’ll never know if you don’t try!” Aeris said, gently pushing the other girl out the door, shutting it, then locking it._

_Her response was a few half-hearted bangs on the door._

_“You’re not getting back in until you get some sort of answer, silly!” She turned and sat on the bed next to Tifa. “So what are you doing, hon?” She ignored Yuffie’s feeble final bangs and her stomping off down the hallway._

_“Making sure I know if she snatches up a few of these while I’m not looking.”_

_“Oh, Tifa. She apologized. Besides, she was only doing it because her father pressured her so hard. I can’t even imagine leaving home to have the whole fate of your country placed on your shoulders!”_

_She looked up. “You’re too easy on her. She could have gotten us killed.”_

_“We shouldn’t rely solely on something that’s easily stolen or destroyed in the first place. Or used up, seeing as it‘s mako-based and all. I thought you knew that, fought for it.”_

_It was often impossible to have a realistic conversation with Aeris. She_ would _insist on trying to see the best in people’s motives and intentions. “So, why’d you kick her out of the room, then?” Tifa asked, changing the subject._

_A giggle._

_“Why’d she care about her outfit?”_

_“You’re serious!” Aeris laughed some more. “I can’t believe you haven’t noticed. Cloud’s been kinda extra nice to Yuffie lately. She thought she was imagining things, but I finally asked her about it, because I’d seen it too. So for the past week or so, I’ve been trying to get them cornered together to figure it out. So. CUTE. Anyway, spending the night at a place like this is the perfect opportunity.”_

_She’d stopped her sorting in shock._ Cloud…and…Yuffie? What? _“Perfect opportunity for what?”_

_“A date!” The other girl smiled, then got up and danced around. “I hope it works. He better say yes…I told her to tell him that he could count it as the date he owed_ me _, if that helped. I mean, she’s a teenager, and half the time he acts like a teenager…”_

_“There’s a five year difference!”_

_“True,” said Aeris. “But Zack was about five years older than I was, and acted a lot like Cloud does. Not that there aren’t differences! There are differences between me and Yuffie, too…but just the way she’s acted, all nervous about liking him… It reminds me a lot of me. And since Cloud isn’t as confidant as Zack was, unfortunately, they both needed a little…” She giggled. “A little push!” She flopped down on her bed._

_“Wow…” Tifa’s voice trailed off. “Maybe…I’m weird here, but wouldn’t it be better to stay out of their business? Maybe Cloud was just being nice, and you just foisted this date idea upon him.”_

_“Didn’t you see the way he looked when she was tied up on Da Chao? No, it’s not simple concern. He was mad at her, but infuriated at Corneo…” She paused. “Hmm, well, if Yuffie’s not back within the next minute or so, we can assume that Mission: Yuffie date! was a success.” She pulled out her rod and began to polish it._

_Tifa stared at the door, secretly hoping…but after a half hour, she had to concede that Cloud’s dumb ass had probably gone along with being coerced into Mission: Yuffie date!_

_Yuffie slipped back in the door well past midnight. Aeris, in typical chirpy flower girl form, had gone to bed a couple hours ago._

_Tifa was still sitting on her bed._

_“Hi,” the younger girl whispered._

_She could see the glow around her from across the room. “So what happened?” She took care to keep a bitter note from her voice._ What happened while you stole away _my_ friend and left me alone and bored for the night?

__

_“Well…” Yuffie giggled. “First we went to the play, and got picked to be performers. Cloud kinda messed the whole thing up. The right lines were obvious, and he said the weirdest things he could think of. …I slapped him at the end. I apologized right afterward, though! I just didn’t like gettin’ embarrassed in front of a bunch of people, you know?”_

_“You went out with a guy, and you…slapped him?” Tifa was amused now._

_“Aw, when you say it like that… Gawd…” She grimaced. “After that, we went to Speed Saucer and rode on the roller coaster. There’s a shootin’ gallery on the ride, and Cloud won me this.” She held up a little soldier toy. “Watch!” She wound it up, and it began to hobble along the floor._

_“After that, we rode on the gondola…I embarrassed myself_ again _, and…when we got off, we saw Cait Sith.”_

_“That’s weird. He was just hanging around? He’s a_ toy _.” Tifa frowned._

_“That’s what we thought, so we followed him, and on the entrance with the huuuuge set of stairs, a helicopter came down. Tseng was in it, and Cait Sith had the Temple Key. He just_ handed _it over to the Turks!” Yuffie punched the air. “It made me so mad!”_

_“Seems like we can’t trust anyone,” Tifa muttered._ Little ninja girls steal materia, then Cloud, and toys steal keys to dangerous Ancient ruins.

__

_She sniffed. “Cait Sith says that we have to let him stay around with us.”_

_“Why the hell would we do that?”_

_Yuffie glanced at Aeris, seemingly relieved that she was still asleep. “He’s got Aeris’ ma. And Marlene.”_

_“No…” Tifa felt tears spring to her eyes. “Wait ‘til Barret finds out. He’ll rip the stuffing out of that ‘toysaurus.’”_

_“So, yeah, not really a dream date by any measure.”_

_“Instead of a goodnight kiss, you get to see someone turn traitor.”_

_“Well…” Yuffie grinned sheepishly. “The goodnight kiss came_ after _that.”_

_For some reason, this revelation hit her stronger than Marlene’s kidnapping. She tried to retort, but no words would come out._

_“I better get rested up to deal with breakin’ the news to Barret in the mornin’. Don’t worry about things too much. For some reason, despite being Shinra, and a traitor, I don’t think the guy behind Cait Sith’s mask is such a horrible guy! ‘Night, Teef.” She tossed off her shorts, crawled under the covers, and was fast asleep in no time._

_It took longer, however, for sleep to come to Tifa._ It’s not fair.

“Cloud’s special. My plans will never work without him next to me.”

* * *

“You don’t understand,” she heard the man say. “Everyone I’ve known from SOLDIER has disappeared.”

“What is there to understand?” came the reply. “I believe you…I just don’t know what you want me to do about it.”

“You were way up top in Shinra, Tuesti.”

“Urban development.” He threw a look of desperation back at the bar, as if he wished he hadn’t agreed to follow the other man out the door. “I don’t know much about that type of science…I’m not a biologist. I’m an engineer.”

“You’ve been working with mako, figuring out a way to get energy without taking it out of the Planet. You’re a smart guy, a really smart guy!”

“Rick, it’s simple physics…” His voice trailed off.

“You’re the only one around now with the resources to help with this. It wasn’t _just_ SOLDIER that underwent the treatments, you know. The last set of Turks got the bath, too. Weren’t you friendly with one of them?”

“Reno and I went back a bit, yeah. Rude and I went out for the occasional drink as well.”

“So even if you don’t care about us…I mean, as individuals, enough to try and help…think about your old friends. How would you feel, no, how _will_ you feel when they disappear, after you know you could have tried to stop it?”

“What do you want me to do?” Reeve asked. “I mean, if I get the resources and the people with the right skills, what do you think will help save you?”

“Just find a way to reverse the treatments they gave to SOLDIERs. They say it was just a mako bath, but no one who accidentally fell into mako fountains or that accident in Mideel have vanished like the ex-SOLDIERs have.”

“Do you think someone is attacking them?”

“I don’t know,” said Rick. “It’s either that, or they’re going someplace on their own, like when some people started disappearing back during that Sephiroth thing. …it’s hard to believe that’s getting closer to five years ago than not, huh?”

“Yeah…” He nodded. “I can’t make you any promises, but I will try to find something…figure out how to help, or find someone who can.”

“I knew I could count on you. You were always a stand-up guy. Hell, you even go out to have a drink with someone you haven’t seen in about five years!” He clapped him on the shoulder.

“Gets lonely sometimes in Junon. It’s so big and bustling lately.”

“Credit goes to you, man, for getting the energy crisis solved. We should do this again…just so you can let me know when you need me for a guinea pig.” He started to walk down the sidewalk.

Reeve waved at him, as he made his own way in the opposite direction. “Oh, you are so going to be first under the knife, bud!”

 

Rick didn’t look in the alley he passed immediately past the bar, which was a good thing. He would have seen the person who’d been eavesdropping on his conversation. Tifa peered after Reeve a few moments, making sure he wouldn’t turn around and notice her tailing his friend.

She quickly followed after her latest target. Ex-SOLDIERs hadn’t been disappearing; she’d just been divorcing them from their stolen Jenova cells, in the easiest possible manner. This one had led her to a new goldmine, however; if Reeve’s reversal process extracted the cells _for_ her…she became giddy at the thought.

This didn’t have much bearing, though, on her plans for tonight. Except to cement them. If Reeve had any inkling of doubt on his latest project tonight, it would vanish if he awoke to the news tomorrow morning that the very man who’d begged him for help had managed to lose all of his blood in the night.

She paused. _Does it have to be so extreme? He says he’ll do it…_

_“Rick was in the plan, anyway. Research will take time, and the stronger I get…the faster the goal approaches.”_

Catlike, she began to run after him. When she was about ten feet behind him, she called out. “Hey!”

He turned, warily, but a drunken smile crossed his face when he saw that the voice came from a lovely young woman. The handful of purple lines etching her face were barely visible in the dark. “What’s up, baby?” His shields came down, and he had no pretence of being careful.

“I had noticed you in there, but I don’t think you saw me.” She slowed, sauntering up to him purposefully.

“No…I would’ve noticed someone like you looking at me.”

She rewarded the tired line with a girlish giggle. “So when I saw you leaving, I made to catch up with you.” She bit her lip. “I accidentally heard part of your conversation--I hope you don’t mind--”

“Not really,” he interjected with a grin.

“Good. Because my hunch was right! You _were_ in SOLDIER.”

“That matter?” For a moment, he might have been suspicious.

“Well, only in that SOLDIERs get me all hot ‘n’ bothered.” She made a show of overtly checking him out. “Can I come?”

He chuckled at the innuendo. “As much as you want, darlin’.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, slipping his hand a bit lower for a feel. The two of them walked off into the dark night, and as far as the Junon police were concerned, Reeve Tuesti was the last person to ever see Richard Monroe alive, besides his killer.


	14. Circus Vitae IV

IV.

__

_Thunder crashed, and Tifa cursed herself for being such an idiot._ How the hell can you run out of _rum_? You’re a bartender! _She shook her head, wrapped the paper bag with the bottle underneath her jacket, and ran through the street. She came up to the train station._

Thank god there’s not a crowd, I can get back quickly now.

__

_Her thoughts were interrupted by a groan. She turned and saw a blond man huddled on the stairs, holding an extremely large sword._ Weirdo. _She made a move to continue, when the ticket taker for the train spoke to her._

_“I feel sorry for that guy, but if he doesn’t move soon, I’m going to have to call security forces.”_

_She winced, knowing that security forces had been a euphemism for “thugs to throw people who haven’t committed a crime into lock-up” for quite some time. She glanced back at the guy with a bit of pity._

_Huh. Did he look familiar?_ Do you want to get out of the rain anytime tonight?

“It can’t hurt to check, can it?”

 

_The new thought was weird, but her curiosity was piqued, and she knelt down beside the man. “Hello?”_

_He looked up. “…augh? Zack…”_

_She nearly jumped back, she was so startled._ I haven’t heard that name since…since… _She was shaking a bit as she lifted the man’s hair out of his face, and she was greeted with something that blew her mind. The face of Cloud Strife._

“He saved your life.”

I haven’t seen him since he called me out to the water tower, and I had him make that goofy promise…

“Five years ago…” _She blinked. Vague memories of being cradled to his chest, being set on the cold floor of an industrial looking room…a man with silver hair and a long, deadly sword._

_“Cloud?” Her voice was soft. “Cloud!”_

_He simply blinked at her._

_“It’s Tifa, Tifa…” She searched her brain, thinking of a way to jog him to his senses. She repeated the words as they streamed into her head. “…your old friend. From Nibelheim…when we were kids?”_

_His brows crinkled, as if he were deep in thought. “I…I’m Cloud.” He blinked. “How are you, Tifa?”_

_She laughed. She couldn’t believe this…from crazy to remembering her in half a minute! “I’ll be better once we get out of this wet, yucky rain. I have a bar not too far from here, why don’t we go back there? Besides, I left Barret to fend for himself while I went on a booze run. He will be_ pissed _if I get back any later.”_

_Carefully, she helped him up. He seemed weak, but he gained strength and speed the more they walked._

_“Took you long enough, Teef!” Barret shouted over the counter, where three regulars were glaring at him. “They didn’t believe I was filling in for you,_ or _that we was out of rum!”_

_“That true?” she demanded._

_The customers looked sheepish. They had trouble giving the buxom girl a hard time, between her speedy, accurate drink preparation, and their desperate hopes she’d eventually perform sexual favors for them._

_“Get back to your seats, and maybe in a couple of minutes I’ll get you some rum and MaKoke.” She helped Cloud up to the bar, and he cautiously sat on a stool._

_“Who’s this guy?” Barret demanded._

_“An old friend who ran into some trouble getting around Midgar. Then there was the rain.” She laughed. “This is Cloud Strife. He used to be in_ SOLDIER _.” She raised her eyebrows. “I bet he knows his shit, Bear.”_

_“I’ll believe that when I fuckin’ see it.” He eyed the young man. “A little green to have been a full-fledged SOLDIER_ and _be done with it.”_

_Cloud had been staring at the bar since the conversation had started. “Well, I’m not in SOLDIER now,” he offered._

_“But ya gots SOLDIER eyes!” Barret glared._

_“And that’s why I said ‘used to be,’” Tifa reminded him. She set a cocktail in front of Cloud. “This is my trademark drink, Seventh Heaven. I’ll get you a bite to eat as soon as I serve those drunks over there.” She slung a tray on her arm, and brought out the rum and colas to the impatient customers._

_“I don’t trust fuckin’ Shinra,” Barret said, half to himself._

_“Think I do?” Cloud stared at him, then downed his drink._

_Tifa smiled at the two of them from across the bar. Customers were pacified, and old friends just met new friends._ Why did I go into that SOLDIER thing, though…

“He looks it, he had to have made it. Otherwise he wouldn’t have mako eyes.”

Something is off, though. _She tried to remember again if she’d seen Cloud since seven years ago, but her memory was hazy._

Why did I leave Nibelheim in the first place, anyway? _Suddenly, it struck her that she didn’t quite know the answer to_ that _question, and fear overtook her so quickly, that the empty glasses she’d just collected dropped to the floor._

_They shattered into a million pieces, and the shards were still more coherent than her memories._

* * *

_He slipped up._ Tifa smirked to herself as she stormed her way down the streets of Nibelheim. _If you stay in one place for too long, you’ll leave an imprint. And even your metric fuckton of Jenova cells isn’t going to do you a bit of good compared to mine._

She wasn’t completely focused on him, now; there was too much going on to devote her full energies to Cloud. But she had been toying with him for quite some time. He made for a good plaything.

_Remember when I caught you about to declare yourself free of me? Free to be with her after all this time?_ She laughed. _I have awful timing, don’t I?_

A floor above her, Cloud’s eyes blinked open.

_Awake, loverboy? Good. You’ve been fixated on this little bitch for way too long._

She felt his mind stutter in panic. _“I could say the same to you, you know. For both me and Yuffie.”_

_So you think I’m fixated on your slut, then? How about I pay her a little visit upstairs?_

He moved to wake her, and she focused on his muscles, immobilizing him.

_Come on, Cloud. That’s no fun._ Quietly, she opened the door to her old house. _It’s funny. The last time we both were here, you abandoned and humiliated me. Funny how the tables have turned._ She stepped into the bedroom, meeting his terrified eyes, feeling his panicked mind flit back at the other body on the bed.

A quick glance to his bare body told her all she needed to know.

_Why did you throw it away? I thought it helped you block me out._ Her laughter this time was purely mental, and she watched his face contort as he heard it.

_“You know why. Somehow you found a way to control that, and it made me hear you stronger.”_

_Well, Cloud, as you should know…more mako equals better materia control. I controlled your precious Holy, too, until you tossed it aside. Is it in the trashcan here?_ She ambled over to the wastebasket. _Hmm, no materia. Well, we’re going to have to go searching for it._

A wordless command, and he was standing before her.

She looked him over with derision. _I forgot your clothes were piled on the floor._ She felt his wordless thoughts and scowled at him. _Like I would use you like that, like that’s what I ever wanted you for. Haven’t you figured it out yet, puppet?_

Cloud’s eyes widened.

She paused. _I suppose it would hurt you more to let you know that Tifa’s fighting, inside. It’s too much trouble to kill you, because of her. Strong little girl._

Slowly, she pulled out her trusty knife. _You’re not going to be able to make a sound._

He watched in terror as she cut a deep wound into his upper arm. The blood flowed freely, but not enough to quickly kill him. With one hand, she collected the blood as it pooled out, a blueish glow collecting in the center. With the other, she dabbed a finger into the blood, the other on his pillow.

__

_I’m leaving the bitch a note. She was too wimpy to find you on her own for years, and I think this little piece will be just the thing to keep her away from us._

_“You’re wrong.”_ Cloud glared at her, even as she cast the Cure spell to heal his wound.

_We’ll see. It doesn’t matter anyway, she has nothing that I want. Not anymore._ Her control was like a cord wrapped around his neck. She left the room, dragging him behind her.

It was her turn to have her hands on Holy. There had to be an important reason why its power had suddenly become her ally, instead of her bane.

* * *

_“Papa!” Tifa fell at her father’s side. Sticking straight up out of his gut was the masamune._ Masamune… _“Did Sephiroth do this to you?” She stood, her chest heaving with fury. Giving no thought to calming herself down, as she’d been trained, all she could do was fixate on the sword._

I’ve done some training. Not with a real blade, not yet…and nothing that big. But I can do some damage. Sephiroth certainly was never Master Zangan’s best student! _She pulled the sword out of her father’s body and did a few practice swings with it. It was heavy, certainly, and its length made wielding it a tad awkward, but she was fast. She knew she was fast._

_She would have the thing in Sephiroth before he knew what was upon him._

For Nibelheim! And my friends! And papa! _She ran at the figure on the reactor’s steps, sword ready to strike._

_As he turned, his cold green eyes chilled her, but her stroke was already traveling downward with a force beyond her. Still, he managed to dodge her blow. Elbowing her in the face, he managed to loose her grip on his blade. He reached down with one hand and yanked it from her._

_She looked up in terror to see the masamune raised fully above Sephiroth’s head._

_“Foolish girl,” he snarled, as he drove the blade downward, slashing her open from collarbone to pelvis._

_The force of the blow, combined with the perception-clouding nature of her agony, caused her to lose her balance and tumble down the stairs. She fell in a senseless heap at the bottom, sobbing._

_“Let the pain you feel for acting the fool, instead of knowing your place, teach you that you should lay down and die like the human sheep you are.” He made his way up to the main chamber atop the reactor, and Tifa began to fall out of consciousness…_

_“Sephiroth! I trusted you! You were my friend.”_

_“Get out of the way.”_

_She heard swords clashing, but she did not open her eyes. Could not open her eyes. She was so tired, and her middle was burning…_

_Tifa felt someone else fall down the stairs as she had done, not much earlier, but she paid little notice. She’d just remembered why she’d picked up the sword in the first place._ Papa is dead…

__

_Time passed. It could have been minutes, it could have been days._

_“Zack? ZACK!” She heard a man yell; heard his footsteps falling on the metal grate underneath them. “Oh no…” His voice died. “Tifa,” he choked._

_Exerting her last bit of effort, she opened her eyes as the person knelt next to her. She saw blue eyes, yellow hair…it was Cloud Strife. Plain, ordinary Cloud, who’d she had met on the well the night before he skipped out of town. She’d had him make this_ stupid _promise…_

_And then she was floating, floating away in Cloud’s arms. He gathered her up and set her nicely down in a place where she wouldn’t get hurt if any more fighting broke out on the stairs. Silently, he cast a Cure spell, but it barely did any good. Perhaps her wound clotted a little faster, but blood was still seeping out through her top._

_“Cloud…” she whispered. “You kept your promise.”_

_She saw his eyes widen in surprise at her recognition, but that was the last thing she saw. The room went black and soundless as Tifa finally lost consciousness._

_“My specimen is gone! I have the SOLDIER packed up down in the mansion, and his pal down with him. The old man outside is useless, like half the town.”_

_Tifa’s eyes blinked open momentarily to see a greasy man who had black hair and was clad in a lab coat._

_“Well, this one seemed to take to the injections really well,” came a voice from the other side of her. One of the scientist’s assistants._

_“It took enough, just to keep her from dying!” The man screeched. “She better not be useless at this point.”_

_“Hell, we give her another one or two, she’ll be able to walk out of here on her own…”_

_Tifa kept her eyes as slits, as she tried to covertly examine her surroundings._ It looks like I’m in the mako reactor…but how? _She vaguely remembered being hit with the masamune, but a look downward showed that she was clad in a pristine blue hospital gown. She had absolutely no pain where the wound should have been, either._

What happened? _She thought carefully back._ Cloud saved me…wait…you must be getting delirious. You haven’t seen Cloud in two years. It must have been that SOLDIER, Zack.

__

_Suddenly, a third person came running into the chamber. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Professor Hojo, but a man just took out the guard outside--” His words were cut off as a blow to the temple knocked him out completely. The assailant had made it to the heart of the reactor._

_“Stuart!” Hojo practically shrieked. “Get out a gun!”_

_But before_ his _words were finished, a series of shuriken had his assistant pinned against the wall, practically immobile._

_Master Zangan entered the chamber proper, as the professor sniveled in fear. “So, this is the great hand of Shinra. I see the effects you’ve all had on this town have been quite helpful.”_

_“What do you want? I am but a humble scientist.”_

_“Sure you are.” He reached down, grasping Hojo by the throat. “What caused the place to catch fire?”_

_“We--” Hojo gasped. “don’t…know…better…than…you. Men…dis…appeared. What…do…you…want.”_

_Zangan looked over, finally seeing Tifa laid out on the floor, apparently unharmed, and nearly wept for joy. “The girl! She is my star student, and I was devastated to see her home destroyed. I hoped to at least give her a warrior’s send-off…but…she is alive!”_

_“Take her…go…one…condition.”_

_“Don’t_ I _have you at_ my _mercy?” He held onto the professor tighter._

_Hojo nodded, and the grip loosened. “Still, take her far away and don’t return. She saw things she should not have. I’ve tried to remove some of the memories, but the method is not yet perfect…”_

_Zangan carefully gathered Tifa in his arms. “Don’t worry. If I had my way, neither one of us would have to even think about the likes of_ you _again.” The master hurried out of the reactor, ready to take the straightest course off of the continent._

_“That’s too bad for you,” Hojo whispered, rubbing his sore neck. “Since she’ll come back. They’ll all come back.”_


	15. Circus Vitae V

V.

Tifa blinked her eyes open.

Pristine hospital room. White walls. No sharp objects.

She looked down. _Strapped to the bed…?_ She shook her head; she hadn’t felt this disoriented since…since…

Her head began to swim, a thousand disorganized memories flashing and retreating, fifteen years misplaced and muddled. Dreams, nightmares, and reality fighting a contest to see which would come to the forefront.

Yet, at the background of all this, she could sense it. _Blood. Blood on my hands._

The walls shook with the force of a huge explosion. A sonic boom was not far behind the sound of a giant engine soaring off into the air. _Where am I?_

Her ears, long practiced at hearing conversations occurring beyond whatever walls she was occupying, picked up on two voices as they approached her room from the outer corridor.

 

“Why is it so important to you that I see her?” A man’s voice demanded, loudly. “Even the visitors left, so this thing can be all over! We can go far, far away, and be together. Finally.”

Tifa winced, recognizing him. _Cloud… I did something…terrible…_ Every time she tried to concentrate on something specific, it hurt. It felt like a giant chunk of her brain had been ripped away.

“The visitors…looking at them, it taught me a lot. The one guy, Squall, told me that the girl who’d become like Tifa, Rinoa, had gone around sucking the power away from people on their world. She didn’t cut them open to bloody deaths, but I think their powers were more superficial and less…caused by things in your blood.” Yuffie shook her head. “Anyway, he was able to forgive her. He knew that the bad things weren’t her, but that Hyne thing. Who happens to be Jenova!”

“I don’t know if Tifa was ever herself, then! When would she have gotten Jenova before she started cutting people open to suck it out?”

“When did you get Jenova?”

He was silent for a moment. “After confronting Sephiroth in Nibelheim.”

“Did Tifa confront Sephiroth in Nibelheim?”

He didn’t respond.

 

Tears began to flow down Tifa’s cheeks again. The past few days had been as hazy as the past few years, but she know she had cried enough, whenever she remembered, to where she should have had nothing left to cry out.

 

“Cloud?”

No response.

“You don’t have to be best friends, or hang out. Just acknowledge that she was fucked over worse by the same damn thing that fucked you over. Please... My father held a blind grudge for years. His was against outsiders, but it still drove our entire country into the ground. And I couldn’t stand for…our _child_ to have a father who was that close-minded.”

“Our…but…you said you _couldn’t_!” Cloud’s voice rose in shock.

“I know. That was the deal I made with Leviathan. The trade to save Wutai. But I am, and there’s only one explanation left for how I could be.”

 

For a moment, Tifa was lucid again. _Jenova. So tenacious to live…_

 

“But…Yuffie, I wouldn’t think it could travel through my…” A pause. “I mean, it takes entire cells of hers…that’s ridiculous, I know basic biology!”

“Time will tell, right? We can get him or her tested after birth, maybe get treatments from Reeve when the right age comes. But until then…” Her voice died.

 

“ **It’s not over!** ” They could hear through the walls as Tifa shrieked in horror, the memory of crimes conducted in her skin crushing down and consuming her once more.

 

 

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this story several years ago for a story contest over at icybrian.com . I think I wrote it in less than two weeks. Since I've been reading a lot of stuff here on AO3, I thought it might be nice to post something that I'd done. While not all of my writing is still satisfactory to me, I'm still fairly satisfied with how I managed to tie the FF7/FF8 universes together with this.
> 
> Some quick Latin translations:  
> E Pluribus Unum - One from Many  
> Requiescat in Sanguinem - Rest in Blood  
> Tempus Morieris - Time Dies  
> Circum Vitae - Circle of Life
> 
> Hope anyone that managed to wander over to this story enjoyed the read!


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